A story about 2 sisters and a dog who go on a hike with their dad to the Carpathian mountains and suddenly at night they find themselves where they were not supposed to be, at a magic fair, surrounded by small forest creatures, which, as it later turns out, gather in this place every year for the holiday of the summer solstice, or as it is called in Ukraine, Ivan Kupala.  I want to include in the story many references to Ukrainian legends and the demonology of the mountainous part of Ukraine, as well as to my sister and I’s funny stories from childhood, when we went hiking with our dad.  In addition, the location of the main events is also a reference to a real, quite large-scale solstice festival in the Carpathians, where a huge bonfire is burned to the sky, something like the Ukrainian Burning man, I visited there many times during my student years.  

 

In general, now the story is at a very early stage, I don’t even have half of the storyboard yet, but I hope I will have the time and resources to bring it to life!

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With these 5 pictures, I entered the illustration competition at the Bologna Book Fair and was among the finalists!