Wonder, madness and magic: illustrating Alice in Wonderland with Kristjana S Williams | V&A

Step inside the eye-popping studio of Icelandic illustrator Kristjana S. Williams. Kristjana's work blends traditional Victorian engravings with digital collage techniques to create layered landscapes full of hidden details. Here, we see a sneak preview of her latest V&A commission: creating a series of original illustrations for a new book, accompanying the exhibition Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser.
Find out more: vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/alice-curiouser-and-curiouser

[@vamuseum]

Who is your favourite Alice? 🍄

[@pyewackett5]

Anne Marie Mallik

[@pyewackett5]

@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE Johnathan Sutcliffe ...???

[@shandhaula]

Certainly NOT this copy & paste...

[@luiscuixara4622]

No matter how much re-illustrating, by however many talented re-illustrators: Tenniel, only. There is magic in his ink bottle, that won't be found on a computer screen. Can you not see the disappointment in the eyes of every Alice who's been drawn since Tenniel, a sadness from having been drawn by someone who wasn't he? Look closely, my dear. You can't double-click the Dormouse.

[@phillipstroll7385]

This is the kind of crap that makes me sick. Alice in wonderland is great just as it is. You are not going to make it better or current by channing the illustrations to modern ridiculousness. Leave all enough alone. Why you ppl are always trove to change what works is beyond me.

[@Emgee78]

Ugh, I love this. It's so lush and detailed and beautiful.

[@KarlaJTanner]

I love that it makes you groan!

[@coclo27]

This is so amazing! Don't listen to the minimalists in the comment section. KEEP GOING MAXIMALISTS!

[@mariemorgan7759]

Alice in Wonderland is one of those children's books I read as a teenager, and it left a far more lasting impression of how sublime the Victorian Age was to me then and now.

[@novitaelisaillustration]

I love to see the process behind the artworks, so inspiring thank you for sharing 🥰

[@AndreaDavisarttherapy]

My 3rd great grandmother Willie Liddell would be so happy to see Alice finally portrayed as a brunette!

[@atakashige]

I am very looking forward to coming this exhibition in our country Japan. Great thank you for each museum.

[@bruce9635]

Delightful. Shared this to my nephews both graphic artists illustrators. One lives in London!

[@lkmayhew9390]

Wonderful work. Congratulations!👌

[@yasminenaamo5775]

Oh my god that's great! Nice job!!!

[@judywhiting4684]

Its so collage-y...love it...gorgeous

[@juancateigueluribe]

Simplemente "Impresionante", no tengo palabras!!!!!!!

[@user-mj6rn2op8i]

coldplayのジャケットで知りました とても素敵な方で、内面から滲み出てるようです♡

[@fainatselnik267]

Amazing!!!!

[@Anonymous-vn8ik]

I love this!

[@corrietapp3178]

Enchanting Alice! Black-and-white Has made your charm perennial; And nought save ‘Chaos and old Night’ Can part you now from Tenniel; -- Henry Austin Dobson

[@carringtonlefayette8644]

Corrie thank you for your gentle heart and words. Australia

[@carringtonlefayette8644]

Sublime truly enchanting.

[@kathrynhopkins]

magical!

[@niajhopkins]

I'd just like to point something out to the people who say she's not an illustrator. I'm not looking for a fight I just want you to consider some things. If not for her none of those images would be collected into one piece of artwork. Collage artists are illustrators because they are ILLUSTRATING a story. Without the artist all these pieces will continue to be stand alone pieces. But thanks to her deciding which pieces should go where to CREATE A NEW IMIGE she has created something new. Its actually a lot harder than it looks and unless your also an artist and have created pieces like this and understand the process of turning something old and incoherent into something new then you have no right to say what she is or isn't. Again I don't want a fight. I just wanted to share this with you also. If you look at an artwork and say "well I could have done that" that's not the point. The point is that you did not do that and the artist who you are dissing on did.

[@annishilcock4587]

Of course she's an ilustrator, just using computer images in a collage arranged by her assistants. And so what if these images weren't used, there are others that could have been used, and of course I didn't do that ,why would I, I would have another vision, it's called individuality and it's what makes every artist, illustrator, graphic designer, whatever, unique. Your argument is not very coherent and you've completely misunderstood what I said. Where did I say she isn't an artist? I am simply lamenting the fact as Hockney does that skills like drawing, sketching and painting, are being lost to a generation recycling images they haven't created themselves. Which will ultimately be a finite process. And it's actually called a exchange of different views, not a fight.

[@annishilcock4587]

She's an ilustrator if that's what you want to call her but my defintion of an illustrator is someone who creates the images they use. Just to be clear.

[@l.e.m.friedman5965]

Actually the use of actual Victorian Collage pieces is brilliant and apropos. Collage was exceptionally popular In the time frame when the Original Alice in Wonderland book was published. I have seen whole Victorian wardrobes desks collaged and or paper machete from the same period. I worked for an antique dealer finishing furnature, hand painting furnature, restoring and guilding furnature and have restored several Victorian Collage furniture pieces.By the way I am a also a Commercial illustrator and surface designer, and have been one for well over 45 years. have worked in Paints and Props for the Santa Fe, Opera. Plus even Mattese did collages. This book is brilliant. Kudos to the Designer, Illustrator.

[@esotericexplorersmartinez493]

Gorgeous where can I get this book!

[@vamuseum]

You can find it in our online shop here 🐛: www.vam.ac.uk/shop/alice-curiouser-and-curiouser-hardback-161264.html

[@anonymousanon3055]

I think the style fits the story very well.

[@jeanross7430]

The new illustrations are beautiful and showed your artistic talents, but for me there is too much going on in the scenes which distracted me however that is just me. I am certain the new books will delight generations to come. I love the paper theaters, especially the first one, it lured me in, wanting to explore.😊

[@annishilcock4587]

This ain't no artistic talent honey, this is a computer !

[@RegularHuman]

wow

wonderful art

[@Sergeinovikovjewels]

🌿😍🌿

[@kirathompson3653]

This style reminds me of some of the Beatles music videos

[@lancemillward1912]

Success. It's beautiful

[@rinzertanz]

... so, cut & paste?

[@michaelkopala3738]

Cool and thanks for posting. .......................................................... All the young girls love Alice Tender young Alice, they say Come over and see me Come over and please me Alice, it's my turn today

[@BM-gk6fb]

liberty caps, wavy caps and amanita hmmm I wonder why they're involved...

[@ryb3198]

Mess!

[@crake345]

The paper theater books are really cool but the collage illustrations are an eyesore. She talks about wanting them to have depth but since it's a collage it's so flat and busy.

[@johnpkorb2112]

I enjoy working in digital collage and have never seen it done in a paper fold-out manner. As for the rather sadly predictable comments alluding to the Jefferson Airplane song… I'm an old S.F. Bay Area guy so I think I get it. But that's why I turn the comments off on my own work.

[@men_del12]

Mad Hatter: Why does this raven like the writing desk?

[@sofiep7861]

The collaging is fine, but the coloring looks really flat and doesn't fit with the rich imagery of either the Victorian source illustration nor the Allice in Wonderland story.

[@franzrogar]

5:12 ...and why copyright laws should be wiped out. Do REALLY the V&A Museum OWNS THE COPYRIGHT of the peepshows MADE MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO? No. They own the object, they LIE about the copyright ownership.

[@annishilcock4587]

That's not being an illustrator, that's being a computer technician with an assistant.

[@marquamfurniture]

Gosh, who knew ANYBODY could do this?! /s

[@chuck-jy7mz]

You changed Alice's hair color, why not be more inclusive and diverse and make her black or Asian ?

[@annishilcock4587]

Whatever happened to a pencil and paper, paint and a paintbrush, original vision and imagination not the recycled images of someone else's skill manipulated by a computer technician? When the archives have been exhausted what then?

[@rebecca3207]

I was wondering why the illustrations looked off. I then realized they are photoshopped. As creative as it may be, it's not art. Its clicks on a computer and it shows. There is a team of people clicking using a computer program. Again, NOT ART.

[@sac8483]

That’s like saying collages aren’t art just because you stick a bunch of pictures together. I understand it doesn’t sit well to look at someone move pictures in a screen and color it, but I think the arrangement and coloring is art :)

[@user-hf4qy3mt6z]

digital art exists and is much more complicated than just "clicks on a computer". this is a 5 minute video showing the process, and we're not being shown much. collages, illustrations, cartoons/animations, graphic design, fashion design, etc. can all be done digitally in this day and age.

[@gideoncheok2129]

A computer is a tool, just like a paint brush is a tool. It can’t create something by itself. A perfect example is David Hockney embracing the iPad which allowed his creative process to evolve.

[@markmiller3279]

It's creative and it's visual. It's art, whatever the tools. Any reputable fine art department accepts that students work in the media available to them. They don't hobble them by insisting they only use the materials of the past. Art was never defined by its materials, or oil painting wouldn't be art, going back only a few hundred years.

[@MagpieOnTheMoon]

This is a clueless comment. Lots of art is created with a computer. It's just a different tool.