Train tickets

Train tickets; notebook drawings by JVL, dated 1st of June 1975.

I always used to draw my train tickets when embarking on a long journey. It was a habit I formed because I was always losing my tickets. I thought if I lost my ticket I would be able to show the drawing to the guard as a replacement for the ticket. (The drawings would show how they were punched during consecutive stages of the journey). One day I did lose my ticket and showed the guard my drawing as evidence. He was neither impressed nor amused with the result I had to pay for a second ticket. Needless to say I hardly ever draw tickets anymore!

Rock the dinosaur and Daniel descend the steps at Sloane Square Tube Station

Rock the dinosaur and Daniel descend the steps at Sloane Square Tube Station, 

an illustration by JVL in Dinosaurs Don't Die by Ann Coates, 1970, page 55.

The challenge, when drawing the illustrations for this book, was that the locations in the story were specific ones in London and most of the action took place at night.

'Rock, the dinosaur, and Daniel enter the Natural History Museum,

'Rock, the dinosaur, and Daniel enter the Natural History Museum, an illustration by JVL in 

Dinosaurs Don't Die by Ann Coates, Longman, 1970, page 58

John Ogden (the pianist)

A sketchbook drawing by JVL of the pianist John Ogden, 1957 or 1958.

This was drawn when I was an 18-year-old art student at Salford Art School. Not a very good one (the piano is far to small for instance) but it gives some kind of a flavour of the event. As you can see there were not many people attending the free concert at Forsyths, a music shop in Deansgate, Manchester. John Ogden was a student in Manchester at this time.  I thought I would include this sketch this week because BBC's Radio 3 is playing many of his performances as 'Artist of the Week' during the Essential Classics programme every morning. I still listen to his magnificent artistry on a number of CDs I have today, including performances of Rachmaninov Preludes,  pieces by Busoni, Ronald Stevenson's First Piano Sonata, the mighty Opus Clavicembalisticum by Sorabji, as well as his own Dance Suite. A great pianist. While I am typing this BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting Ogden's recording of Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto.

The Snark hunters preparations to hunt the Snark

The Snark hunters preparations to hunt the Snark, an illustration by JVL for 

Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, Artists' Choice Editions, 2006, page 31.

Here's the text:

 Then the Banker endorsed a blank check (which he crossed),

 And changed his loose silver for notes.

 The Baker with care combed his whiskers and hair,

 And shook the dust out of his coats.

The Boots and the Broker were sharpening a spade--

 Each working the grindstone in turn:

 But the Beaver went on making lace, and displayed

 No interest in the concern:

Though the Barrister tried to appeal to its pride,

 And vainly proceeded to cite

 A number of cases, in which making laces

 Had been proved an infringement of right.

The maker of Bonnets ferociously planned

 A novel arrangement of bows:

 While the Billiard-marker with quivering hand

 Was chalking the tip of his nose.

But the Butcher turned nervous, and dressed himself fine,

 With yellow kid gloves and a ruff--

 Said he felt it exactly like going to dine,

 Which the Bellman declared was all "stuff."

The Bellman 'served out some grog' from The Hunting of the Snark

The Bellman 'served out some grog', an illustration by JVL in Lewis Carroll's 

The Hunting of the Snark, Artists' Choice Editions, 2009, page 21.

Here is the relevant extract from the poem:

The Bellman perceived that their spirits were low,

 And repeated in musical tone

 Some jokes he had kept for a season of woe--

 But the crew would do nothing but groan.

He served out some grog with a liberal hand,

 And bade them sit down on the beach:

 And they could not but own that their Captain looked grand,

 As he stood and delivered his speech.

"Friends, Romans, and countrymen, lend me your ears!"

 (They were all of them fond of quotations:

 So they drank to his health, and they gave him three cheers,

 While he served out additional rations).

"We have sailed many months, we have sailed many weeks,

 (Four weeks to the month you may mark),

 But never as yet ('tis your Captain who speaks)

 Have we caught the least glimpse of a Snark!

"We have sailed many weeks, we have sailed many days,

 (Seven days to the week I allow),

 But a Snark, on the which we might lovingly gaze,

 We have never beheld till now!

The Court scene from The Hunting of the Snark

The Court scene from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll, an illustration by JVL, 

Artists' Choice Editions, 2006, page 41.

This is an episode in Fit the Sixth - 'The Barrister's Dream'. Here is part of it:

He dreamed that he stood in a shadowy Court,

 Where the Snark, with a glass in its eye,

 Dressed in gown, bands, and wig, was defending a pig

 On the charge of deserting its sty.

The Witnesses proved, without error or flaw,

 That the sty was deserted when found:

 And the Judge kept explaining the state of the law

 In a soft under-current of sound.

The indictment had never been clearly expressed,

 And it seemed that the Snark had begun,

 And had spoken three hours, before any one guessed

 What the pig was supposed to have done.

The Jury had each formed a different view

 (Long before the indictment was read),

 And they all spoke at once, so that none of them knew

 One word that the others had said.

"You must know ---" said the Judge: but the Snark exclaimed "Fudge!"

 That statute is obsolete quite!

 Let me tell you, my friends, the whole question depends

 On an ancient manorial right.

'There was a general clapping of hands'

'There was a general clapping of hands', during the trial of the Knave of Hearts,

 an illustration by JVL in  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, Artists' Choice editions, 2009, page 93.

Wool, hay and a biscuit for 'Through the Looking-Glass.

'Wool', an illustration by JVL in Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll, 

Artists' Choice Editions, 2011, page 64.

'Hay', an illustration by JVL in Through the Looking-Glass,  by Lewis Carroll, 

Artists' Choice Editions, 2011, page 83.

'Biscuit', an illustration by JVL in Through the Looking-Glass,  by Lewis Carroll, 

Artists' Choice Editions, 2011, page 35.

Gemini

"Gemini', an illustration by JVL for the 'Starscope' page for Honey magazine, 1965.

'Alice's Meadow'

'Alice's Meadow', an illustration by JVL in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Artists' Choice Editions, 2011.

 Alice curtseyed again, as she was afraid from the Queen's tone that she was a LITTLE offended: and they walked on in silence till they got to the top of the little hill. For some minutes Alice stood without speaking, looking out in all directions over the country -- and a most curious country it was. There were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook.

Magic Cube with rows adding to 42

Magic Cube with rows adding to 42, a notebook drawing by JVL, 3 May 2013.

A 3 x 3 x 3 magic cube can be constructed in such a way that every row, column, and corridor, and ever diagonal that passes through its centre, is composed of 3 cubes which all add up to 42. 

I hope this isn't as clear as mud!

Fishes in bed and Humpty Dumpty with a corkscrew

Fishes in bed and Humpty Dumpty with a corkscrew - 

two illustrations by JVL in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, 

Artists' Choice Editions, 2011, pages 77 and 104

The episode in the text:

Then some one came to me and said, 

"The little fishes are in bed."

I said to him, I said it plain, 

"Then you must wake them up again."

I said it very loud and clear; 

I went and shouted in his ear.'

'But he was very stiff and proud; 

He said "You needn't shout so loud!"

And he was very proud and stiff; 

He said "I'd go and wake them, if -- "

I took a corkscrew from the shelf: 

I went to wake them up myself.

And when I found the door was locked, 

I pulled and pushed and kicked and knocked.

And when I found the door was shut, 

I tried to turn the handle, but -- '