Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat is just one of those iconic literary characters. He has graced the silver screen a couple times now and there have been many illustrations and fan art works done of him. The book Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol is a classic and can inspire any artist. I normally don't do recreations of someone else's imagination baby. However, this was a special request made by a family member that didn't work out. My vision sometimes doesn't fit another's.

Alice in Wonderland book illustration (This is in color, the original was black and white):

Disney's Alice in Wonderland animation:

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland:

I had conceptualized my composition for my Cheshire piece back in April of 2016. I made several doodles on a plane flight to Minneapolis and my seat neighbors probably thought I was a psycho for drawing creepy smiles over and over again. 

I had seen a few pieces or artwork that depicted trees in a different way and I opted to use birch trees for my piece and left them tall, scraggly, and odd. I thoroughly enjoyed drawing the birch trees for this piece. Oil pastel lended me the texture and impression I wanted with the bark's color.

I had toyed with the idea of combining the Disney animation and Tim Burton's creation together. The cat would be both purple and blue. I ended up going with Tim Burton's color choice. In the Disney animation the cat would disappear in ribbons (as if sliced) and would gradually fade in pieces.  Tim Burton's cat would apparate with a smoke like effect. I wanted to do a little of both. In my piece he is perceived as floating above the imaginary viewer below him. If it was hung high enough up the viewer could be you, not so imaginary. 

  

I have a rule with oil pastel and paints: 

"Don't shade with black. Black equals flat!" 

I broke it. (Hey it is Alice in Wonderland, right?) 

Having a flat color tone background to the tree and sky helped separate the main subject of the piece. Doing this also helped the piece keep a vertical pull without a solid break or horizon chopping it up. I used a full moon as a back light and upper anchor for the composition. Oil pastel is applied in layers so I did the deep blue first then applied the black. 

Tim Burton always has a creepy element to his work and full moons are a solid move. I know I got the smile and eyes right on my creepy cat too. 

  

Texturing his fur was a color challenge. There was a lot of pencil work in this piece and minor tweaking. When I say minor tweaking I really mean stare at it and wish you hadn't touched it moments. I sent this last image on the eisel to my best friend, Kim, who made one suggestion and it made a huge difference! Sometimes your eyeballs are all detailed out when you have been working for hours on end. The difference is the darker shading past the cat's head which gave more depth and a hint of the "floating head" the cat is known for. 

I am quite pleased with the result. I impressed myself! The peak of his image had already gotten some interest and I hope that he makes any Alice in Wonderland or Tim Burton fan happy. 

"Tim Burton's Cheshire Cat Fan Art"

Wild at Heart Illustration Style

Prints will be available on Redbubble and Society6 for now. I will be keeping prints in house and selling through Etsy soon. 

As always stay tuned!