Advice from a caterpillar (and a squid, or is it?)

A few weeks ago I took a class in Children's book illustration. It was fun, the tutor was great and, cherry on top, it gave me the opportunity to make up with acrylics!
Acrylic paint is a great medium when you know how to use it but you usually have to be very quick. In my case, as a student, I often ended up with dried out colours on my palette and a very powerful urge to throw everything by the window.
And here I am, 10 years later, being asked to illustrate the following:

"Alice looked all round her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but she did not see anything that looked like the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the same height as herself; and when she had looked under it, and on both sides of it, and behind it, it occurred to her that she might as well look and see what was on the top of it.
She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large caterpillar, that was sitting on the top with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else
The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.
Who are YOU? said the Caterpillar."

I must admit it's quite hard to work on such a famous book when your mind has been "polluted" by so many Alices and blue caterpillars. It was an interesting challenge though, especially as it forced me to use acrylics.

I'm quite happy with the result, considering it's my first attempt at an elaborated illustration with acrylics.
Hail to T.S Spookytooth, the aforementioned tutor, who introduced me to my Holy Grail "the slow drying medium".