The intricate art of confounding expectations.
''Twas brillig', an illustration by JVL for Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, Artists' Choice edition, 2011. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. Here is a translation of the verse, which I worked out before illustrating the passage. It is based on helpful information provided by Humpty Dumpty in the story itself and by Lewis Carroll elsewhere. It was time for broiling dinner at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the smooth and slimy, lizard-like badgers (with corkscrew noses and tails) scratched like dogs and screwed out holes into a rain-soaked hillside beneath a sundial. The wingless, thin and shabby, mop-like parrots (with their turned-up beaks, with feathers sticking out all round and who had made their nests under a sundial) were most miserable and flimsy. And the green pigs, that had lost their way, made a kind of a sneezing noise in between their bellowing and whistling.
The intricate art of confounding expectations.
The White Rabbit's House, an illustration by JVL in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Artists' Choice Editions, 2009.
The intricate art of confounding expectations.
The Hatter, Dormouse and March Hare, a trial coloured etching by JVL in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, ('Specials edition)Artists' Choice Editions, 2009.
The intricate art of confounding expectations.
Random Notes about Doodling, Sketching, Drawing and Illustrating looks at the works and private sketchbooks of acclaimed illustrator, John Vernon Lord. With works from the 1950’s to 2023, this volume represents the most comprehensive range of work from Lord. The book includes an introductory essay from writer and broadcaster Brian Sibley and four new essays by John Vernon Lord on the differences between doodling, sketching, drawing and illustrating. Lord is internationally acclaimed for his works for James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, his illustrations Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and his writing and drawings for the seminal The Giant Jam Sandwich set to verse by Janet Burroway. ‘This book represents 66 years of some of Lord’s drawings and notes carried out from his student days to the present (1957-2022). They are mostly informal works that were carried out as a way of exploring and discovering. There are very nearly 700 pages of drawings here selected from the many pages of his sketchbooks, notebooks and doodles. The apparent precision of many of the drawings belies the actual spontaneity of making them. They vary from depicting something observed to subjects that lurk inside his imagination. Drawing is one of the sharpest ways of keeping within the present.’ – John Vernon Lord ISBN: 978-1-915528-02-5 266 x 238mm 290 pages £40.00
Dispensing with Alice altogether is one feature of my illustrations. The idea would be anathema to most conventional mainstream publishers. I thought there
Dispensing with Alice altogether is one feature of my illustrations. The idea would be anathema to most conventional mainstream publishers. I thought there
Down the rabbit hole in enchanting reimaginings.
