Illustration Friday - Remote (II)

We tend to fear what we don't know, and such is the case when we misunderstand why some people choose to keep themselves remote from society. We often imagine the worst about them, endowing them with negative traits and behaviors, thus creating fictional characters that stand in for the real human beings.

I had planned to illustrate this idea with two literary characters, but time constraints forced me to settle for one. Her name is Lori, the Red Witch from Paul Gallico's beautiful novel Thomasina. It's a touching and magical tale of a widower, his daughter, a ginger cat named Thomasina, and Lori, a healer. The red-haired Lori lives deep in the woods, and is branded a witch because of her healing powers and mysterious solitary way of life. She shows her true side, however, when she saves Thomasina from death, and ultimately heals the hardened heart of the widower and the broken heart of his daughter.

The second character is Phillip Rhyader from The Snow Goose, another work by Paul Gallico. It is about the bond of love that forms between Phillip, a deformed, hermetic painter who loves birds and Fritha, a young girl who brings an injured to snow goose to him. I have a picture in my mind, but I will save it for another time.