July Queen

July Queen follows the adventures of sisters Raisa, Sasha, and Ilsiya over the course of a summer spent in their uncle’s village. The three girls are determined that this year, they will best their archnemesis, Sveta, at the annual July Queen pageant. This year is special – this is Raisa and Sveta’s last year before they age out. Also, the rules have changed, and not for the better. As our heroes work to break Sveta’s four-year streak of victory, they begin to notice that the reworked pageant is not the only big change in their sleepy village. Militarisation, political suppression, and a return to “traditional values” no-one in living memory has ever espoused threaten to topple the girls’ way of life – and really ruin their chances of pageant victory.
July Queen is my ongoing thesis project at the School of Visual Arts’ MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program, scheduled to be completed in May. All illustrations done with paint marker and India ink.