Curiouser and curiouser...

Anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with Alice in Wonderland. When I was young we had an old copy of Alice (Parts 1 and 2 together) kicking around the house. Although I was too young to read, I used to love flipping through the pages, looking at the spectacular illustrations.
The typography of the book was also intriguing (although I didn't know the word "typography" at the time); there was a poem arranged to look like a rats tale, and some of the type was backwards.
I used to point out to people that chapter eleven was only eight words long!
I now own at least 5 editions of the book. One I recieved a few years ago has been in the family for quite some time! It's a very old edition of "Through the Looking-Glass."
In Applied Communication Arts last year I decided to print my own edition of Wonderland for my end-of-year project. I decided to go with a modern spin on Alice by dressing her in jeans and a blue hoodie.

Side note: Alice is public domain, and downloadable (for free) on the internet (complete and unabridged).

A lot has changed since then! A new Alice film has been released, and I'm almost finished studying Graphic Design. I want to put my new skills to the text... and what better way to chart my progress than to redo last years project? So that's exactly what I am doing!
This time the book will include both Wonderland and Looking-Glass, which means it will be much thicker. The cover will be black, the ribbon bookmark will be teal, and the endpapers will be marbled (black, white, and teal). There will be only two illustrations, but they will be large double-page images (a montage of characters) one for each "book".

I'm considering doing one illustration per chapter... I dont know yet... that's a LOT of work.
The overall tone of the book will be darker than my previous edition.
I have an entirely new look for Alice. She's embracing her dark side.
Intoducing Jason's fantastic inspiration board:

This board holds images that have inspired my new Alice, and some of my early sketches.
My original plan was illustrate each chapter (which I might still do, as mentioned before). The following are two full-colour chapter illustrations I may or may not use in the finished book. "Down the Rabbit-Hole" and "The Pool of Tears."

And finally, I have three page samples to share. The inside cover, table of contents, and chapter one.
Arranging the text is the most challenging part of the process. It's much easier this time around though.

So there you have it! I've probably written the longest blog post in the history of blogs, but this is a major project.
Oh, the things I get myself into! "Stop taking on so many projects at once," I tell myself... but as Alice says: I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.