IndexAbout the artistStyleGrotesqueImage and textWoodcutsImage informationCharactersCopyright and translationsLewis Carroll originally illustrated Wonderland himself, but artistic skills were poor. An old engraver who had worked for Carroll in 1859 had examined Carroll's drawings and suggested that he hire a professional illustrator. Carroll was a regular reader of Punch magazine and was therefore familiar with Tenniel's work. In 1865, after a long conversation with Carroll, John Tenniel illustrated the first edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay About the Artist John Tenniel was a British illustrator and political cartoonist famous in the latter part of the 19th century. His artistic achievements were recognized in 1893. John Tenniel is remembered as an important cartoonist for Punch magazine where he worked for over 50 years and for his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). For all the fame he gained through Punch magazine, most of Tenniel's fame comes from his illustrations for Alice. Tenniel drew ninety-two drawings for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Very often, Carroll gave Tenniel precise instructions on what should be drawn, which was not only about visual preferences but also about a special way to include certain references in the story. Furthermore, illustrators have a specific style and are also influenced consciously and unconsciously. from their environment and the past. Therefore Tenniel's drawing style, jokes and other "trademarks" are not essentially accurate to the Alice books, but can also be found in his other works. Style The Nazarene movement gave rise to a style that influenced many artists such as Tenniel. This style can be classified as “shaded outlines” where the lines on the drawings are given extra thickness or are drawn as double lines offering shading or volume. This style is also extremely precise, with the artist drawing a hard, defined outline along his figures. After 1850, Tenniel's style modernized to feature more detail in the backgrounds and figures. In addition to a change in background, Tenniel developed a new interest in human forms and expression and this was something that carried over into Tenniel's illustrations of Wonderland. A further change in style was his shaded lines. These transformed from mechanical horizontal lines to actively hand-drawn hatching that significantly intensified the darker areas. Grotesque “Tenniel's grotesque is what attracted Lewis Carroll to let him illustrate for the Alice books. According to the dictionary, the grotesque is an anomaly that conveys the disturbing feeling that the real world may have ceased to be reliable. Tenniel's style was grotesque in his dark atmospheric compositions of exaggerated fantasy creatures that were carefully delineated. Often, however, the idea was to use animal heads on recognizable human bodies or vice versa. In Giovanni's illustrations the grotesque is also found in the fusion of things and in the deformities of the human body. In particular, the famous Jabberwocky drawing by Tenniel in Alice is made in a grotesque way. Scholars such as Morris assert that Tenniel's stylistic shift can be attributed to the late 1850s trend toward realism. Because the grotesquecan work, "it is our world that must be transformed and not a fantasy kingdom". These subtle points of realism help convince readers that all these seemingly grotesque inhabitants of Wonderland are simply themselves, they are simply real, they are not performing. Alice's illustrations combine fantasy and reality. Image and Text The placement of Tenniel's illustrations on the pages is one of the elements to note. There was a clever and subtle mix of illustrations with text. Carroll and Tenniel wanted to express this concept in various ways, one of many is bracketing. Two relevant sentences would have enclosed an illustration, which could better define the moment. WoodcutsTenniel agreed the designs with Carroll, drawing them on bleached blocks of dense boxwood. The engravers then worked on the block, cutting out the empty parts so that the image was in relief. Then the designs were engraved to their highest standards by the Dalziel brothers. In October 1864, the Dalziels recommended printing the Alice illustrations directly from the woodcuts. This method gave the best results. Thousands of prints could be made from wooden blocks, but they could not survive industrial-scale printing. Carroll appears to have ordered many (expensive!) modifications. Ignoring Dalziel's advice, he decided to pursue mass production techniques, using metal replicas of the wooden blocks called electrotypes. It's lucky that he did; no one predicted how popular Alice would be, and the woodcuts would not survive the numerous printed editions. The process of creating the wooden blocks was quite difficult, so at times it was necessary to make concessions to the overall design of the illustration. For example, a character would be moved to a different location. About the Image John Tenniel's pristine illustration is like a visual paradox, where the caterpillar's face appears to be formed from the head and legs of a real caterpillar. Although the original illustrations are black and white, in Alice's Adventures Underground and The Nursery Alice, the Caterpillar is described as blue. The Caterpillar is the first character who makes a real effort to guide Alice on her journey. Because she is tired of becoming smaller and smaller due to events beyond her control, the Caterpillar teaches her to eat parts of the mushroom to control her size and thus to familiarize herself with her environment when necessary. The Caterpillar is rather severe and unfriendly, and corrects Alice's recitation of a poem, but also teaches her to deal with the difficult situations she encounters in Wonderland. Eventually, it crawls away. Some critics, and especially people in popular culture, see the Caterpillar as an agent of drug culture, since he smokes hookah and shows Alice how to eat a magic mushroom. This caused controversy over the total banning of the book. But I believe the Caterpillar is actually a laid-back guru who helps Alice understand how to control the imaginary world she is exploring. The Caterpillar also tells Alice that changing shape and size is not always a bad thing: after all, one day the caterpillar will turn into a butterfly, and instead of being afraid it will be the best moment of his life. According to some, the Caterpillar mushroom also has multiple symbolic meanings. Some readers and critics see the Caterpillar as a sexual threat, its phallic form a symbol of sexual virility. The Caterpillar mushroom is connected to this denotative meaning. Alice must master the properties of the mushroom to gain control over her fluctuating size, which represents the physical frustrations that accompany puberty. Others see the mushroom as a vibrant encapsulating hallucinogen”.