Finnegans Wake binding cover design

Binding cover design by JVL for James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, The Folio Society, 2014.

Here is a link to the Folio Society’s Blog about my notebooks and illustrations for 

Finnegans Wake.

http://www.foliosociety.com/blog/illustrating-finnegans-wake/

Initial letters

Initial letters, designed by John Vernon Lord for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Artists' Choice Editiions, 2009

Daisies on a bank

Daisies on a bank, a frontispiece illustration by John Vernon Lord in 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Artists' Choice Editions, 2009.

This illustration acts as a frontispiece in my version of Lewis Carroll's story. I took a photograph in our garden to represent a kind of 'reality' before Alice succumbs to sleep and to dream upon a bank full of daisies. 

The text:

CHAPTER I

Down the Rabbit-Hole

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the

bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped

into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or

conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice

'without pictures or conversation?'

 So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for

the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the

pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of

getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit

with pink eyes ran close by her.

The caterpillar from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The caterpillar from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, 

an illustration by John Vernon Lord in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Artists' Choice Editions, 2009

Self-portrait (aged 22)

Self-portrait (aged 22), a drawing by JVL in a diary, June 1961.

The Table of Twynberllan

The Table of Twynberllan, a notebook drawing by JVL, 24/25 December 2009.

'Love it, use it, or chuck it'/Tracebridge Condiments

'Love it, use it, or chuck it'/Tracebridge Condiments, notebook drawings by JVL, 13 August 2012

'Yawn's Inquest' (notes for Finnegans Wake)

'Yawn's Inquest' notes and a rough drawing from JVL's Finnegans Wake notebook, March 2013.

These are rough notes in preparation for illustrating this section of Finnegans Wake, which has just published with JVL's illustrations by The Folio Society in 2014.

Finnegans Wake notebook (Cad with a pipe)

A spread from JVL's notebook devoted to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, 2012. 

This spread includes some of the notes for the episode of the Cad with a pipe.

Yesterday the Folio Society had its launch of its Spring books at the British Library.

Among the books is a new edition of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake edited by Danis Rose and John O'Hanlon with my illustrations in it. If anyone is interested in having a look at the Folio Society’s blog about my illustrations and notebooks - here is the link

http://www.foliosociety.com/blog/illustrating-finnegans-wake

Birds and a mouse swimming

Birds and a mouse swimming, an illustration by John Vernon Lord in Lewis Carroll's 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Artists' Choice Editions, 2009.

The Text:

It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with

the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and

a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures.

The Rising Cadence of the Interrogative and Fingers and Cups

'The Rising Cadence of the Interrogative and Fingers and Cups'. Drawings from a notebook 

by John Vernon Lord, November 2007

'The Donkey', an illustration by John Vernon Lord for GK Chesterton's poem 'The Donkey' 

in The Song that Sings the Bird, poems for young children chosen by Ruth Craft, 

Harper Collins, 1989.

The text:

The Donkey

By GK Chesterton

When fishes flew and forests walked   

   And figs grew upon thorn,   

Some moment when the moon was blood   

   Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry

   And ears like errant wings,   

The devil’s walking parody   

   On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,

   Of ancient crooked will;

Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,   

   I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;

   One far fierce hour and sweet:   

There was a shout about my ears,

   And palms before my feet.

Lobster and Prawn

Lobster and Prawn, illustrations by John Vernon Lord in Lewis Carroll's 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Artists' Choice Editions, 2009.

The Hatter's Shoes and a Hat Press

The Hatter's Shoes, an illustration by John Vernon Lord, in Lewis Carroll's 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Artists' Choice Edition, 2009.

A hat press, an illustration by John Vernon Lord, in Lewis Carroll's 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Artists' Choice Edition, 2009.

'Beautiful Soup'

'Beautiful Soup', an illustration by John Vernon Lord in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 

Artists' Choice Editions, 2009.

The text

'Oh, a song, please, if the Mock Turtle would be so kind,' Alice

replied, so eagerly that the Gryphon said, in a rather offended tone,

'Hm! No accounting for tastes! Sing her "Turtle Soup," will you, old

fellow?'

The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and began, in a voice sometimes

choked with sobs, to sing this: --

'Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop? Soup of the evening,

beautiful Soup! Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! Beau --

ootiful Soo -- oop! Beau -- ootiful Soo -- oop! Soo -- oop of

the e -- e -- evening, Beautiful, beautiful Soup!

'Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish, Game, or any other dish?

Who would not give all else for two p ennyworth only of

beautiful Soup? Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup? Beau --

ootiful Soo -- oop! Beau -- ootiful Soo -- oop! Soo -- oop of

the e -- e -- evening, Beautiful, beauti -- FUL SOUP!'

The Owl and the Pussy cat and the Turkey who lived on the hill

The Owl and the Pussy cat and the Turkey who lived on the hill.

An illustration by John Vernon Lord in The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear, Jonathan Cape, 1984 and reissued in 2012.

The text of the final verse of the poem:

III

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling     Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.' So they took it away, and were married next day     By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince, and slices of quince,     Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,     They danced by the light of the moon,           The moon,           The moon, They danced by the light of the moon.

The flight of the Yonghy Bonghy Bo

The flight of the Yonghy Bonghy Bo, an illustration by John Vernon Lord 

for the poem 'The Yonghy Bonghy Bo' in The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear, Jonathan Cape, 1984 and reissued in 2012.

The text of this verse:

Down the slippery slopes of Myrtle, 

Where the early pumpkins blow, 

To the calm and silent sea 

Fled the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo. 

There, beyond the Bay of Gurtle, 

Lay a large and lively Turtle. 

"You're the Cove," he said, "for me; 

On your back beyond the sea, 

Turtle, you shall carry me!" 

Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo, 

Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo. - 

Cash Register and Typewriter

Cash register at Lord's Café. A sketch by JVL drawn in his father's shop in Glossop in 1957 

when an 18-year-old student at Salford School of Art.

Typewriter at Lord's Café. A sketch by JVL drawn in his father's office in Glossop in 1957 

when an 18-year-old student at Salford School of Art.

A 'Rudge' bicycle

A 'Rudge' bicycle, a sketchbook drawing by JVL drawn 1957 when an 18-year-old student.

This bicycle took me up and down many a quiet Derbyshire lane round Glossop in the late 1950s and round the hectic streets of London in the early 1960s. Mind you, it wasn't a wonky as this drawing!

Kitchen and bathroom

Kitchen and bathroom; illustrations by JVL for the magazine House Beautiful 1967.

I never thought, when I was an art student, that I would be drawing a lavatory!

I did many such drawings to earn a living in my early freelance days!