THE GOLDEN KEY in Progress

Here are a few new illustrations for a new edition of the Golden Key, which I’ll be working to finish by the end of the summer for publication in 2016 by Eerdmans.

I plan to start and end the book wordlessly, with the faires, the guardians of the Key. In the first picture, below, the fairy is sitting with the Key on the tree stump, watching Mossy and his Great-aunt. She is assessing whether he will be the one they want to next find the key.

   In the above illustration, the fairy has decided to choose Mossy, and she flies off to hide the key at the base of the rainbow in Fairyland.

Tangle, the girl who joins Mossy on his quest, has a different experience with the fairies, and a more difficult path than Mossy.

I plan to end the book wordlessly, with the fairy hiding the Golden Key,looking out to the reader as if to say, “Will you be next?”

These are just a few of the 45 planned illustrations for the book, a Victorian fairy tale by George MacDonald.