I'm working on an Alice in Wonderland themed junk journal but wanted to go beyond the usual 50 or so images that seem to be in constant use. They are truly lovely illustrations -- more on those and artist Sir John Tinniel below -- but they do get a lot of use. So I went looking for some less usual images to use and share.
The right images have to have some things in common:
They have to be appealing or interesting
They have to be obviously related to Alice in Wonderland
They have to be legal to use
One of the less commonly used Alice in Wonderland public domain images.
Meet Sir John Tenniel, Alice in Wonderland Illustrator
You may not know his name, but you recognize his work! Just about every Alice in Wonderland junk journal printable uses it. So do planner printables, wonderland art pieces and more. A peek at the search results on the first page of Etsy shows just how popular this illustrator's work is when it comes to designing with public domain images:
Every product on this page is using the same illustrations -- thanks to the talent of the designers, you don't really notice this until you view them all together. It's amazing how each designer has made something different and awesome from the same few pieces!
“Self-portrait” by Sir John Tenniel, 1889. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sir John Tenniel was not only responsible for these beloved Alice images, but for cartoons, posters and illustrations in dozens of other 19th century works. He was prolific but his most enduring images were those of Alice, the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter, all in use above.
Even useful addons like charms are inspired by the Tenniel drawings! (Find this set on Amazon, I have ordered them 3x already!)
I've used those popular images in these pocket tags and in other embellishments:
I love the Tenniel designs but wanted to find some that were unique but still legal to use. That means the pieces need to be in the public domain, so Wikimedia Commons was my first stop. (Learn more about finding art for printables you want to sell using Wikimedia Commons here)
It turns out, there are other choices, yay! The search took on new life when I remembered that I actually prefer Through the Looking Glass to Alice in Wonderland, and pretty soon I found a library of images by equally talented illustrator Peter Newell:
Public domain images from Peter Newell's 1902 illustrations, wikimedia commons
These are obviously Alice, in the public domain, but far less used. A further search of Wikimedia Commons, the New York Public Library and the Smithsonian's recently released public domain library yielded even more images.
Editing Images for Design Use
While you can use the images as is, provided they are public domain, editing them makes them uniquely yours -- here is a look at one image I cleaned and recolored a bit (I have a full set to share with you, this is included).
It's not a huge change, but boosting the contrast and adding some color will make this one print a little better on a home printer -- something they did not have to worry about in 1902!
Unusual Alice Printables Just for You!
I had so much fun digging through the Alice public domain images and discovering new ones that I pulled together a whole file of them. Most have been altered in some way, generally I increased the contrast and in some cases, added or modified color. These printed beautifully in old books but modern printers (at least the home ones) use CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) ink so just transferring the image and printing it yeilds poor results
This bolder, brighter queen prints out far more impressively than the original, thanks to a boost in contrast and color saturation.
I made a sheet of single color images and one with bolder color -- these are all public domain images and can be used in any project you'd like including one for sale. Just don't sell my edited versions as clipart -- it's easy enough to find the originals and add your own personal touch ;)
Get your free high resolution copy of the images above in the subscriber library. If you're already a member -- your Alice freebies are waiting for you. If you're not, you can join here for free and get an email with the password (it takes about 5 minutes to arrive, fyi)
Or just click the huge red button for an instant download :)
I hope you enjoy them and would love to see what you make!!
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