Alice, roughs 3/14

From Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 2, The Pool of Tears :

"As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, 'and in that case I can go back by railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.

'I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. 'I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.'

Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself."

"I wish I hadn't cried so much!"

Next post, Thursday : The thimble

Alice, rough 2/14

From Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 1, Down the Rabbit-Hole :

"Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!"

The Glass Table.

Alice in Wonderland has been done so many times by so many brilliant artists that I think the temptation can go both ways -- an illustrated moment works so you go with that even if it's familiar. It's worked for 150 years because it's good. Or you go the complete unconventional route. Which I'm sure some people to make work but for me that felt like I was trying too hard, it needed to be more natural. What I've tried to do with all of these pieces is strike a balance between familiar characters and moments and other moments, like the Glass Table, that I don't remember ever seeing illustrated before. Either way it's terribly difficult to go wrong with subject matter as captivating as this.

Here's an alternate coloring study for this one. It's possible for this one that when I come to drawing the final I think I might tighten up the focus on Alice and the table, bring it in a little closer.

Next post, Wednesday : "I wish I hadn't cried so much!"

Alice, roughs 1/14

Back in October of last year I began putting together roughs for my next personal project, illustrating Alice in Wonderland. After many weeks and months of sitting on the back burner, Alice has finally come to front.

I've spent some of my free time these last few days taking the completed roughs turning those into color studies. Every day (weekday) for the next couple of weeks I am going to post the next rough/color study in the series. After that we'll move on to the drawings, and finally the paintings. I hope you will enjoy.

I've put together 14 illustrations : 12 chapters illustrations + prologue and epilogue pieces.

So, without further ado, here is the rough and color study for the prologue.

Daisy chains.

Next post, Tuesday. "The Glass Table"

Alice portraits 3/3

In addition to my painting of Alice and the Gryphon, I wanted to make three small portraits for Curiouser and Curiouser, the upcoming Alice in Wonderland show at Gallery Nucleus.

I settled on portraits of Alice, the Cheshire Cat, and the Caterpillar.

Here is the Caterpillar.

Alice portraits 2/3

In addition to my painting of Alice and the Gryphon, I wanted to make three small portraits for Curiouser and Curiouser, the upcoming Alice in Wonderland show at Gallery Nucleus.

I settled on portraits of Alice, the Cheshire Cat, and the Caterpillar.

Here is the Cheshire Cat, who amounts to the Cheshire "James" -- my cat.

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And then for my own amusement I did a quick digital version.

Next post, Thursday : The Caterpillar

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I'm adding to my standard M/W/F schedule to keep all the Alice portraits together so the Caterpillar will go up tomorrow.

"bit and run" will come Friday as usual.

Alice portraits 1/3

In addition to my painting of Alice and the Gryphon, I wanted to make three small portraits for Curiouser and Curiouser, the upcoming Alice in Wonderland show at Gallery Nucleus.

I settled on portraits of Alice, the Cheshire Cat, and the Caterpillar.

Here is the progression of Alice.


This just wasn't doing it for me and got ripped in half.


This one also started out working but ended up ripped in half.

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Finally I decided to have Alice doing something, however inactive looking at a bottle is, it worked much better for me.






This finished piece is a mix of pencil, watercolor, and gouache.

Next post, Wednesday : The Cheshire Cat

Alice and the Gryphon : stages

When I decide to photograph the progress of a piece, I inevitably forget I'm doing that and the spaces between photographs widens the longer I'm working.

Nevertheless, I managed to get the highlights of making my first piece for Curiouser and Curiouser : Inspired by 'Alice In Wonderland'

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Alice and the Gryphon. 8 x 10. Watercolor.

This weekend I'm set to begin the set of three small portraits that will accompany this piece.

I'm very glad to be having a little extra time to do these.

Alice and the Gryphon

I'm very happy to show my first piece for Curiouser and Curiouser : Inspired by 'Alice In Wonderland' another one of the awesome shows coming up at Gallery Nucleus.

I'm sure you'll remember Nucleus, they hosted the Terrible Yellow Eyes show back in September 2009.

The Alice show is coming up and in addition to the painting below I've got a series of small portraits planned as well.

Alice and the Gryphon. 8 x 10. Watercolor.

I was really excited when I heard about the show and even more so when Nucleus asked me to join. If you'll remember, back in October I had begun to plan for a series of Alice inspired pieces then I was waylaid by the enormous project (I still have to wait to post about it yet) but I managed to plan all my pieces for this Alice project.

Wednesday I'll post the stages of painting for this piece and you can sort of see how it came together.

update/Alice

Man, work had been crazy as of late. I've been doing close to 15 hour days the last week or so. It's an incredible project and one that I look forward to being able to talk about here. I've not enjoyed a client project like this since Le Cadeau du Temps.

I am sorry for missing my scheduled posts last Friday and Monday, though. I'm terrible.

Here's a little update with where I am with the Alice work :

I've got through chapter 9 thumbnailed and roughed. All that's left is the last 3 chapters. Once I get those put together I'll start posting the progress. It's been fun, I hope you will like the result.

I especially like the Cheshire cat, I modeled him after my one cat, James who is fat.

Alice in Wonderland

Over the month of October (and likely in to November) in whatever free time I can gather, I'm going to be working through the Lewis Carroll classic, Alice in Wonderland.

12 chapter illustrations + prologue and epilogue illustrations.


I'm looking forward to it -- every project I work through I enjoy in a different way. With Walters I enjoyed the challenge of working in a graphic novel format but I found I missed putting everything into individual pieces rather than spreading the effort over panels and pages. Grimm and Other Folk Tales fulfilled that. And while never hectic, Grimm certainly was solid work, no breaks so next I wanted a slow burning project, one that would take it's time and grow. The result was Terrible Yellow Eyes. And now with Alice, I'm excited to be making individual pieces again. (And of course, after Alice it's on to Flight 7.)

In a way, I'm looking at this little Alice project as preliminary work. I'm going to be making 11" x 14" drawings, finished, complete drawings like this troll one. I hope to find the time in the spring to turn these drawings into large oil paintings. That's the idea, we'll see about it.

Of course, I'll be posting the development and progress over the coming weeks.