Down the rabbit hole with Essex libraries

I was commissioned to create some illustrations for Essex Libraries (funded by Arts Council England). My illustrations were put on display across libraries in Essex to make a Wonderland trail as part of their Down the rabbit hole event to celebrate the 150yr anniversary of Alice in Wonderland.

You can see all the illustrations on my website www.helendodsworth.carbonmade.com but I thought I'd post a few here too.

Workshop for Down the Rabbit Hole event at Essex libraries

As part of this project I ran a workshop at Chelmsford library, to consult with a group of young people about what parts of the story they would like me to illustrate, and to think about character design.
The work shown here is by Katie, Rebecca, Eloise, Sarah, Jessica, Gabriella and Ella.
A big thank you to you all for joining in, it was great to work with you all.

 

This is a close up of the quick thumbnail sketches I drew for each scene, under direction from the group, during the workshop. Although the exact composition was tweaked and added to when I worked on the final illustrations, I kept these in mind whilst drawing, with a few extra details added here and there.

 

 

I thought I’d post a photo of my work space. Whilst I was working on the illustrations I had copies of the drawings from the workshop stuck on the wall next to me, along with the written descriptions for the characters that the group gave me, and layout ideas for each scene.

 

Here are some drawings from the workshop for the scene where Alice meets the Cheshire cat. In the story the cat is up the tree with Alice stood below looking up, but I loved the groups idea of having Alice and the cat in the tree together instead, it just seemed more fun that way. I love Alice’s expression in this drawing and the way she is leaning towards the cat, they look deep in conversation!

 

 

Wonderland trail images for Down the Rabbit Hole at Essex libraries

 

This is my final illustration for this scene, which I think is pretty close to the original idea. I couldn’t resist adding the blue caterpillar to the branch below though (as Alice meeting the caterpillar wasn’t a scene chosen by the group I thought it would be nice if he still made a guest appearance somewhere!)

 

This is one of my favourite scenes. I have made this one a little more chaotic, I thought it would be fun to have the accused thief the knave of hearts sneaking away and one of the animals stealing a tart, both taking advantage of the queen being distracted by Alice.

This is a design created by one of the group at the workshop, showing how the cards running to capture Alice could start turning into leaves as she wakes up on the river bank.

Alice waking up. I couldn’t resist adding the blue caterpillar again hiding in her apron pocket. I liked the idea of a bit of wonderland still being with her after she had woken up.

Activity for the wonderland trail for Down the Rabbit Hole at Essex libraries

 

Each image on this scene is printed out on a separate piece of A4 paper, which will then be stuck on a wall inside each library and arranged into the scene above.
After the children have followed the images of Alice in Wonderland around a trail within the library they will get to this scene. They will then take part in an activity where they can colour in a card soldier template to cut out and add to the scene, then colour one of the white roses on the bushes red to help their card before the queen arrives.