Steampunk Alice in Wonderland Caterpillar

This image was published on the cover of Corel Painter along with a 6-page tutorial I wrote on Steampunk art. It was also chosen to be included in the Society of Illustration West 48 Exhibit.

I painted this for the CG Society's Steam Punk Myth/Legends Challenge. Although I got the painting done in time, I didn't read the instructions properly and never submitted a large size format jpeg. I think it doesn't matter, because the competition was tough and I already had my favorites picked out among the other entries to win. Nevertheless, I like what I did, and hope to paint more steam punk fairy tales. I already have some ideas in mind. For this piece, I went through the whole gamut of subject matter before I picked Alice in Wonderland. I considered Lady of Shallot, La Dames sans Merci, King Arthur, and Joan of Arc. Eventually, I thought painting Alice would be more fun, with a giant mechanized caterpillar and some characters and critters from the story. I even stuck my dogs in it (again). Ripley the sheltie as a puppy and my aussie rescue, Freckles. If you look carefully, Alice is reading Tesla's Wireless Transmission of Electricity. This is the very first piece I ever painted for steampunk and I still love the genre.