STEVE’S SIGNATURE STYLE

The illustrator describes his experience on this unique project

What was the initial brief for this project?

The outline for the brief was very simple: to illustrate Alice in my own style using Affinity Designer. I was given a lot of freedom as to how best to approach it; however, the illustrations had to be created very much with the original text in mind. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is such a classic that I was initially a little apprehensive in my approach – how do you illustrate a classic and make the art look original?

Which characters did you most enjoy drawing?

So many of the characters are full of personality, but probably the Cheshire Cat is my favourite. Coming from Cheshire, I’ve always felt proud my home county’s name was put on the world stage by this guy.

Apart from bringing your own signature style to these illustrations, was there anything else you looked to do differently?

I’m always trying to experiment and develop my style, so this was a great opportunity to push pattern, colour and graphic shape a little further. The characters have been illustrated, animated and appeared in live action movies many times, meaning that there’s a certain way the public expects to see them represented.

I was looking for a way to add something different and in my research I hadn’t seen anyone incorporate hand lettering into their illustrations, so I decided to use a mix of graphic design and illustration. Incorporating the hand-drawn chapter titles and Roman numerals into the layout of the drawings is the part I enjoyed most.