One third is Done

I don’t know if I explained this in a previous post. Forgive me if I did. I’ve planned to write “Alice’s Adventures at the Poles” in 12 chapters. Both Wonderland and Looking Glass are written in 12 chapters so if that’s good enough for Lewis Carroll then it’s good enough for me. So, with regards to illustrations, Tenniel made forty two for Wonderland and fifty for Looking Glass. I decided to split the difference. Averaging at four illustrations per chapter it works out at forty eight. That’s how many I plan.

Now, that doesn’t mean I have to limit myself to only four per chapter, or that each chapter must have four. But by this time last week I’d written the first four chapters – or a third of the book. At that time I had made

7 illustrations for chapter 1

2 illustrations for chapter 2

2 illustrations for chapter 3

2 illustrations for chapter four. So even allowing for my bumper crop of illustrations for chapter 1 I am still 3 short for the first third of the book.

So the obvious thing was to try to make another illustration for each of the first three chapters. Ideally, Alice would feature in each of them. Yesterday I went for it, and produced the three – one of which I was not satisfied with and did it again this morning.

When I’m doing an illustration that features Alice herself then I tend to work with pencil first. I haven’t worked like this for years, but getting Alice as close to right as I can is difficult. Even when I was just copying Tenniel’s Alice illustrations I never got Alice’s head quite right. So here’s the three illustrations in chapter order.

This is the illustration to chapter 2. It shows Alice with the main supporting character of the chapter. I liked the way that I’d draw him so much that I did actually go back to the text and change the written description to fit the illustration a little bit better. Alice here draws heavily on one of my own earlier illustrations although I did change the position of the arms and legs. In case you’re wondering the other character is holding a snowball. You’ll have to take my word for it that this is important. 

This is my new illustration for chapter three. I spent a longer time doing the first version of this yesterday than I spent on either the illustration above or the one below, both of which I’ve kept and think are far better. Well, look, the whole purpose of starting Alice’s Adventures at the Poles was to give me a chance to make original Alice illustrations which I think are as good as I can make them. And that one just wasn’t. This is better, because the Alice figure is better. Not great, mind you, but as good as I think I can do. Well, engaged in this activity anyway.

Then, after all that unsuccessful effort this next one just seemed to flow from pencil and pen. Alice’s head is again inspired by a photo of my oldest granddaughter, Amelia, although in this case she does look just a little more like Amelia’s mum, my daughter Jenn. In the background I rather cheekily used a domed greenhouse which features in one of Tenniel’s illustrations of Alice talking to the King, Queen and Knave of Hearts in “Alice in Wonderland”

So a bit of a mixed bag, but at least all three of these are good enough for me to allow them into my book. And if you’d told me when I started writing it that I’d be able to make sixteen of my own Alice story illustrations for the first third of the book I’d have called you a bloody liar, so that’s something.

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I've been expanding my collection of copies of Alice with illustrations by my favourite illustrators. I bought a combine Mervyn Peake copy a few week's ago, and last week a sumptuous Ralph Steadman combined edition. I love them both. My next target is a copy with the 1928 Harry Rountree illustrations. Watch this space.