Alice in Wonderland Pen and Ink Series

I've always been a fan of Alice in Wonderland. The silliness and pure imagination within the story appeal to my more whimsical side. In particular, I've always loved the poem, The Jabberwocky, so I set out one day to create a pen and ink drawing of the beast. I could never find the right inspiration to tackle the Jabberwock, so I thought I'd start with depicting portions of the book that particularly lent themselves to visual representation...and the project blew up from there. I could have easily done 20 more drawings, but these took me a year as it was.

While I never actually got to drawing the Jabberwock - I never had the courage to tackle the beast - I did create a wonderful series of art that currently hangs in story order along my stairway at home. Each of the following illustrations can be enlarged by clicking on the picture.

The first shows Alice daydreaming as she first notices the white rabbit rushing by. The second in the series is my favorite. This shows Alice reaching for the orange marmalade while falling down the rabbit hole. The reason this one appeals to me so much is the use of line to depict depth within the rabbit hole.

The next drawing shows the key and the bottle labeled "Drink Me" that starts Alice's adventures in size alterations.

The next drawing shows Alice in her particularly large state, crying as the white rabbit runs away in terror.

The next drawing is another of my my favorites, depicting Alice as three inches tall while asking for help from the caterpillar.

The next character Alice meets is the smiling Cheshire cat talking to her from the tree.

She then finds the Mad Hatter, March Hare and Door Mouse at the tea party.

Then we meet the cards who are working very hard to paint the white roses red!

Next we find Alice meeting the Queen of Hearts for the first time.

Followed by being attacked by the pack of cards at the conclusion of the first book.

At the beginning of the second book, Alice encounters the Red Queen and learns that you have to run awfully fast in order to stay in the same place!

Followed by meeting Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum at the fourth square.

And having an interesting conversation about the passing of time in Looking Glass Land with the White Queen.

Next is the only drawing from the Jabberwocky poem I could gather the courage to create showing momeraths, borogroves and slithy toves.

Finally we see Alice become a queen at the eighth square, suddenly discovering a crown which appeared on her head - another one of my favorites as I seemed to show her surprise on her face.