Another illustration

Okay, today I am not going to do what I’ve done the last couple of Sundays. I haven’t made any copies of any Alice illustrations since last Sunday. Try to contain your disappointment. So we’re not going to discuss the ways that different illustrators have illustrated the same scene or character across the years.

This is not to say that I have been totally idle. For one thing I have been starting to write chapter IV of “Alice’s Adventures at the Poles”. The more difficult thing is that unlike the previous chapter, I have had to think about how this chapter contributes to the overall narrative. Also, I want to go a little further with it than I’ve been before by making Alice herself a little more proactive. Most of what she has done so far in Adventures at the Poles has been reacting to what others do or say.

Nonetheless even with all this to bear in mind I have written about a third of the chapter, introduced a new character and also a plot device which will be used in the future, and I know where the chapter is going to go, it is ‘just’ a matter of writing it. This is not like the block I felt before I could write the rest of chapter III.

I have also produced another illustration. Here it is. 

It’s a larger and more complex illustration than pretty much any I’ve so far made for the story. The way I constructed it – for this illustration out of all the ones I’ve made for this story was more constructed than draw, was this. First I drew the Alice figure. Although this is my Alice – check out the braids on the hair and the dress that she is wearing – her pose is a deliberate reflection of the pose adopted by Tenniel’s Alice when she is looking up at the Cheshire Cat. The legs are in a different position, and Alice is looking to the left rather than the right, but the inspiration is pretty clear. Last week, when I got he Alice I wanted the rest of the illustration just flowed, that’s why I tried to use the same technique.

I followed Alice’s eye line and sketched in the cuckoo from the clock. I’d made my task hard for myself by the way that I described how he was dressed and indeed I did go back to the text to simplify it a little bit. All of the elements of the illustration were worked out in graphite pencil first. So, for example, I drew Alice in pencil, then inked her in. Then I drew the cuckoo in pencil and after much erasing and going back to square one-ing, I inked him in. Then the cuckoo clock. My cuckoo clock is a hybrid design taking elements from several reference photos. I felt as if I was on home ground with the clock, since this is essentially a building and I feel very much at home sketching buildings.

I’m planning to write 12 chapters. It makes sense, there are twelve chapters in Wonderland, and twelve in Looking Glass. Working on an average of four illustrations per chapter, that means I’m aiming for a total of forty eight. I’ve currently made 13 illustrations, although only 12 of these will be used in the book because two of them are different versions of the same subject – Sliver the Snake. This doesn’t mean that each chapter must have four illustrations and only four. At the moment chapter 1 has 7 illustrations, while both chapters 2 and 3 have two illustrations each, and chapter four 1. It does mean though that I am behind in terms of illustrations. What I plan to do is keep making them the way that I have been doing, then total it up when I’ve finished the story. Then I will go back over it and make a plan for what illustrations I should make to complete the set. For example, chapters 2 and 3 are both light on illustrations at the moment, so both would be candidates for more.