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Initial Sketch Ideas and contextual reference looking down the rabbit hole developing on the idea of combing a number of themes in the book this idea is creating a collage of recognisable motifs to do so.

falling down the rabbit hole this idea is to communicate both Alice falling down the rabbit hole and the iconic chapter/theme in the book ( the mad hatters tea par ty)

I have taken inspiration for the layout from ralph Steadman's cover illustration. I like the way it frames the cover and contains the books information. I though I in could create a similar frame but with a build up of motifs, a path into wonderland.

Potential Motifs

developing on looking down the rabbit hole idea: just having the motifs ver tical to represent going down d the rabbit hole. i thought this made sense more than the other idea, before it wasn't clear what Alice was doing (looking down the hole). as the path went back up.

taking inspiration from this print, i like how the title of the book is combined in the illustration, linking each motif together. above i have developed this idea using the chain of the pocket watch.

i wanted to make my illustrations look imaginative/dreamy with colour and media, so i have played around with using a mixture of brusho to give a loose burst of vivid colour, and line drawing to add definition to important details.

Motif to connote mad hatters tea party. i have h played around on photoshop with this illustration, adding a pattern texture to the tea cup, to make it look more like a china/tea cup repeated pattern. patte

Using a Flamingo motif to connote chapter 8, the queens croquet grounds.

Again i have used watercolour to shape the bird, but have only added detail to the impor tant par ts. the rest of the illustration can be filled in in the viewers imagination.

I like how the water colour is not contained in the outline of the mushroom, matching to the imaginative, wacky nature of the book itself. however i am not so sure about the white spots on the mushroom, weather they look odd, i will wait and see what the illustration looks in in context, nect to the rest of the motifs to see i i context need to change this.

i really like how the book cover above just using the Cheshire cats tail to represent the Cheshire cat. i think this is really clever as the viewer can already immediately see what they are trying to illustrate as the Cheshire cat colours are so recognizable.

Layering the motifs up in ver tical layout on Photoshop

Adding pocket watch illustration. i wanted the illust pocket watch illustration to have a lot of detail as it is one of the main focal points of the cover. to the right i have played around with a mock up of the pocket watch chain spelling out the title. titl i wanted it to weave in and out of the motifs to represent the spiral and wondrous adventure Alice experiences.

after stepping back and looking at this layout i wasn't sure if the concept of Alice looking down a rabbit hole was clear as i have not physically drawn a hole, just the motifs she encounters down the hole. i encounte also think the bleed of water colour from the mushroom illustration is lost behind Alice and looks more effective with negative space around it.

so, i have experimented with loosing Alice from the top of the mushroom and have included her in the world-wind of motifs to represent Alice herself falling down the hole. i really like the composition of the illustration to the right, as the motifs are all overlapping each other which creates a compact illustration. i also illust like the way they create a shape which is wider in the middle where as is, aiming the focus on her.

i have used watercolour for her shape but feel this is too subtle and she therefore wont stand out against the other motifs, which is impor tant as she is the main character so must not get lost in the illustration.

to resolve this problem i could still link the text to the chain but keep the text smooth (not made up of circles to represent the chain) i think this will read better and avoid the problem of scaling the chain correctly. below i have experimented with colouring the text and font. i really colou like the ‘wonderland’ gradual change of colour effect, however teaming that up with the coloured ‘alice’ and ‘in’ is to much.

Creating the chain to link to the pocket watch.

As i wanted the chain to spell out the word wonderland i created this separately so i could draw sepa the chain circles bigger. however i found when fitting this back into the illustration and conjoining chain the circles where still to small to give the impression it was par pa t of the same chain.

Though i feel the white background makes the colours from the motifs ‘pop’ i wanted to add a subtle background colour to make the cover look more complete. i think this is also a better idea when thinking about the book in context, if the book was white, there is more chance of it getting dir ty when being transpor ted to shops and being out on shelves for people to handle.. i think i prefer the light blue colour, as this sticks to the colour scheme that is recognizable with Alice (her blue dress) .