Alice on Stage

http://www.tomsarmo.com/

Detail crop from the painting, Alice on Stage.

 

Alice Liddell was Lewis Carroll's muse for the two "Alice" books that he wrote. I've done many works based upon Carroll's other characters, but finally chose Alice as the subject. 

 

A photograph of Alice Liddell.

 

 While I used the dark hair and hairstyle of Alice Liddell as a jumping off point (I am no portrait artist) there was probably a bit of Ramona Quimby and Lucy Van Pelt in my mind as well.

Interestingly, Carroll wanted Alice Liddell's personality in his heroine, but chose Mary Hilton Badcock as the model for her looks. 

 

 He sent this photo of her to Sir John Tenniel, who firmly rejected using any model for his drawings.

http://www.tomsarmo.com/

Before I began to paint Alice on Stage, I sketched many Alices. This is the one I finally chose for reference, and then decided to break with traditional Victorian-children's fashion and make Alice's coat very fancy for the painting.

Been resting up from a hard push and many paintings over the past six months. After some sculpting and other "relaxing" forms of art, I'm back at it--and enjoying the evolution of the new work. I will post some soon.

Thanks for checking out my blog!