“We’re All Mad Here” (Steam Punk Alice in Wonderland). 18″ x 36″ Acrylics on canvas.
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About once a year I like to do a new Alice in Wonderland painting and I decided awhile back that this year I’d like to tackle a steam punk version of the story. “We’re All Mad Here” started out as a REALLY rough sketch on part of an old mailing label during a frenzied moment of inspiration. I spent a couple hours doodling different layouts and then spent the entire next day fleshing out a good, tight sketch (pictured below):
I almost always struggle with what colors to use so I decided to do a rough color study in PhotoShop so I could at least get an idea of what values and colors to use in the painting. (pictured below). I tried a variety of different color schemes like desaturated siennas and browns and then a black, white and red scheme. They all looked okay, but not great. Finally I tried the variation below and felt really good about but I had been staring at it so long that I showed it to a few people first to make sure I hadn’t gone mad.
From there the actual painting on canvas progressed smoothly. Here are some work in progress shots (click on them to make them bigger) and the finished image is at the beginning of this post. I mostly kept to the sketch just deviating on the details. My favorite detail are the tea bags sticking out of the Hatter’s suit pocket. Anyways, hope you like it and thanks for reading…
