Clapp's "Fey Stream"

John Clapp
Illustration

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(27 k), large version (92k)

Seen in Society of Illustrators Annual #40

Fey Stream

Interior art for The Stone Fey
by Robin McKinley

Publisher: Harcourt Brace
Editor: Allyn Johnston
Designer: Linda Lockowitz

Watercolor on paper

"Through him she saw her Hills, as she had never seen them."

Problem
At this point in the book Maddy is sharing the experiences of the Fey...as much as she can being human that is. This section describes things like the taste of the water in the streams, and the dozens of lichens and rocks that are meaningful to the Fey.

Solution
I felt that while the prose was very descriptive and specific, the story at this point is almost a daydream. Maddy's on cloud nine, the euphoria of the relationship still present, so I felt I wanted to try to illustrate that daydream-ish quality, when things look better than reality.

While I feel the painting turned out fine, what has really surprised me is the response of my friends. They almost uniformly like the painting better than I do. Some people have said it's their favorite painting from the book. For me it's probably # 4 or 5.