Mad Hatter

At the library, Anarda and I just hosted a "Mad Tea Party" for the teens, with special guest Frank Beddor. Frank wrote the trilogy called The Looking Glass Wars, which is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and then branched out with some artists and wrote the Hatter M graphic novels (there are five so far, I think). In preparation for this party, we read not one but two retellings, one (Frank's) with the 6+7 Book Club, and the other (Splintered, by A. G. Howard) with the 8+9 Book Club, hoping the novels would spike interest in attending the event. It apparently worked, because we had 50 kids show up, about 20 of them in costume.

I say all this to explain why the Mad Hatter was on my mind when I went to make a birthday card for Anarda! We (Anarda, some of her friends, her mama and her husband) were all going out to a celebratory dinner tonight, and I needed a card to go with my gift, which was an appropriately themed teapot with matching sugar and creamer set.

He's not quite as mysterious and dark as I wanted him to be (I waited until the last minute, as usual, and he was barely dry before I stuffed him into her birthday bag), but he's a good start. Maybe I'll give it another try, with more leisure. Or, maybe I'll do a completely different character! I wasn't wild about the story line in the Howard book, but the descriptions were luminous -- well worth trying to illustrate.

Pencil and watercolor on 140-lb. Fluid Watercolor Paper, with some Micron pen details added afterwards.

By the way, the punch line on the inside read "That's why we like her so much!" (in case you thought I was dissing my buddy)