yet another spencers stores exclusive cover put out by zenescope ent of alice in Wonderland....

brilliantly colored by Nei :[link]

i do love drawing these.....the fact that so many ppl will see it feels pretty cool...they may not buy it...but spencer's stores are in like every mall... and secondly, i normally get told to draw them as hot as possible so that makes me happy....i can be as blatant as i want to be....its not easy trying to have some sort of story telling/body language out of straight up hot chicks posing....but i do like a challenge.

i layout all my covers before hand in my canson sketchbook so i can fuss out any problems i may see at that stage b4 going to the board for final pencils...

believe it or not when i drew up alice in the sketchbook i had NO idea what or even WHO else was going onto this one...and i normally never like to wing it cause it really slows one down and has a chance at looking "shoe horned" in....and most ppl will be able to spot it and not necessarily know why, but know its wrong...but i did it this time and i was lucky it didnt look like shit in the end...

they say drawing two figures on a cover is dangerous cause two fig's are often put side by side evenly on the page and therefor leaving a gap (even if its a hairline gap) in the middle of the page...and "splitting" ur focus....

drawing 3 figures on a page is considerably less risky, and easier because one fig can always be in the middle and be the focal point...i dont like to listen to rules...or i at least like to change it up as often as i can. some masters might say that this design is "odd" cause its not traditional....but tech, it still works...ur eye still lands on alice 1st and the hatter 2nd and back up to the queen, back to alice again..in a smooth motion...so it works and i feel its not typical and boring...

my boss would say that this is indeed bad composition cause the center of the image lays an arm...and not a face...as alice's face is off to the side and he is right...but it doesnt bother me so much...

i think subconsciously most ppl like to see and look at splashy movie poster type images and i try to give them what they want...so i try my best without being too redundant to blow up the main figure to a 3/4 shot or "from the knees up" shot to make the figure "pop" as much as possible...

i feel overlapping things on an image is helpful for establishing "depth"....in this case, we have each figure in front/overlapping the figure behind it....i try to add to this by putting that snake like thing in front of alice and the trumpet flower overlapping alice AND the hatter....as well as the antenna of the bread and butterfly to the right of the cover....

i think story telling with the figure is as important as everything else...i try to imagine the personality a character might have...like our beautiful alice here...is innocently eating away at the pastry....so i imagine she looks happy and carefree and the extreme arch in her spine helps with the illusion of movement and might give the sense of playfulness...

the hatter is sadistic and evil...so i have him hunching over to give the illusion of creepiness....and his body language might suggest he is hiding something...

the queen is hot and a badass...so i have her sporting an axe and she know she can use it...i have her chest out for a more boastful and sexy look to her...and she has a sense of calmness to her to let her victims know she will kick ur ASS...(go ass!!!) and knows she can get away with it...

i ALWAYS keep in mind when drawing anything.... how important body language is...after all, we are trying to tell a story on flat paper...

this was especially fun for me as i tried to make this look as wonderland as possible...i put in the bread and butter flies in homage to the disney flick that im a fan of...and a lot of ppl seemed to catch that....plus the rocking hoursefly...

i also put in tennis rackets...why? cause its weird...i have lightbulbs in the ground and heart shaped bushes...

with wonderland, there are no rules...

no ass shot this time...again sniff....

GO ASS!!!!