The Biggest Family in the World - a new children's book based on the life of Charles Mulli, planned for publication in 2014. This is a blog chronicling the book's creation from the perspective of the artist.
A story about a boy...this is no ordinary boy. His name is Charles Mulli.
Deserted by his family as a child and left to fend for himself on the streets, Charles tells his tragic but miraculous story in Father to the Fatherless, by Paul H. Boge. The boy in Kenya became a believer in Christ, grew up to be a successful millionaire businessman, and then gave it all up to help other street children and orphans. He and his wife, Esther have been Daddy and Mommy Mulli for over 20 years, loving, teaching about Jesus Christ and educating more than 6,000 children to move on to fruitful, productive lives.
I was recently asked by Paul Boge and Charles Mulli to contribute paintings as illustrations for the new children's version of Mulli's life, The Biggest Family in the World. Paul created an outline of the story, and he and I planned visuals for the pages. He flew to Kenya for the month of January, 2013 and between other projects there, he took hundreds of photos for me to use as reference for the paintings. Charles Mulli and his children acted out different appropriate scenes, and through Paul's camera and creative eyes, I have a starting point on which to base the visual story. Paul is actually working on several stories at once. He is planning a movie project on Mulli's life, and will also do another book based on the life of one of the young people whose compelling story of street life and redemption is begging to be told.
Once the photos were available, I created a story-board style series of thumbnail sketches, outlining the visual content of each page. Paul and I reviewed and revised the outline and once we received the approval of Mr. Mulli, we had the "green light" to begin.
This is no ordinary project. I have never done anything of this magnitude and scope, and to be honest, it is terrifying. But taken one step at a time and with a team of prayer warriors behind us, I've started painting.
Page one sets the tone and style for the book, as it introduces the boy and the location on a wide landscape of Kenya. I have included a cropped snippet of the painting, as I will save the full view for the book itself.
Miraculous Moment Story: Frankly, I was nervous about starting Page One. It is supposed to grab the reader and make him or her want to read more. On Saturday March 30th, I had already created a rough sketch that was transferred to the panel, and was about to start painting. Minutes before I began, an email arrived in my inbox from Paul, with a word of encouragement from Charles Mulli himself...needless to say, I wept in relief, as whatever happened next would be in God's hands.
Page One was finished in the early hours of Easter Sunday. The painting content ended up containing a great deal of unplanned symbolism, which makes it even more meaningful.
