For this week’s Wonderland post, I’ll be sharing one of the sources of my Alice in Wonderland inspiration: the illustrations of Peter Weevers.

When I was growing up, there were a few books I wanted to check out from the library every single week. One of those books was a beautiful edition of Alice in Wonderland, with watercolor illustrations by British illustrator Peter Weevers. The story made me laugh and could keep me entertained for hours, and the beautiful quirky illustrations matched perfectly.

Now, whenever I think of Wonderland, I think of Weevers’ Wonderland. For years I searched used and new book stores for my own copy of the book, before finally recently finding it on Ebay.

Weever’s illustrations are one of several sources of inspiration for my Wonderland project, but are probably the source that means the most to me.

All illustrations are copyright Peter Weevers, and used with the artist’s permission.

I love Weevers’ cross, untidy little Alice, based on his daughter. She seems to fit with Alice’s character as written in the book much better than other illustrated versions of Alice.

Weever’s White Rabbit seems to be a rather nervous fellow… I’m still undecided about how I want to do the arms of my White Rabbit – short arms with paws, or more human arms and hands as seen in his illustration above?

The Mad Tea Party is the scene most of my characters will be built around. I love Weevers’ version, with the mismatched row of chairs and huge spread of goodies. The poor Dormouse is always getting picked on. Here you can see Weevers’ Mad Hatter: I’m having a lot of fun deciding how to style mine!

If you want to see more of Peter Weevers’ work, you can visit his website. He also maintains an active blog, and I was surprised to find out that he’s also a writer! I had a lot of fun reading some of his quirky poetry.