Illustrations by Paige Peterson
I wanted the illustrations to be macabre
Dark
Stark
Scary
Mysterious
Victorian
Many children worked 16 hours a day
It was cold
It was bleak
Life was harsh and hard
There was always hunger
Scrooge was angry
Hostile
Controlling
Spiteful
Stubborn
Immature
Revengeful
Thin lipped
Mean old man
He had no joy
Or love in his heart
He was angry
Unenlightened
Unevolved
Void of empathy or compassion
I wanted you to see that in his face
I wanted you to feel the horrid afterlife of Marley
I went to the library and brought every illustrated Dickens book I could find to a table and took in the images
I then while still at the library took my pen to paper
And began drawing
They were rough sketches
I went home and used my watercolor paints to give texture and depth
I wanted them to be raw and simple
And not particularly obvious
In the end
The light of awareness bursts forth
— Paige Peterson