We’ve covered a lot of adult coloring books in the past few years. So much so that the mere sight of a black-and-white mandala is the furthest thing from soothing to us. But when we got a glimpse of an upcoming coloring book celebrating the drag royalty of the South, our faith in the genre was restored.
Illustrator Kasten McClellan Searles is the magical force behind Drag Queens of the South, a coloring book devoted to real-life drag performers who dazzle Southern states.
“I’ve had a love for and fascination with drag queens ever since sneaking out to my first show as a teen,” Searles wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “Drag shows have always been a welcome escape from my own daily creative work. During graduate school my friends and I would visit The Rose Room in Dallas and I was so inspired by the performances I saw there. Jenna Skyy and Cassie Nova lit up the stage with grace and humor.”
Searles began to wonder if there could be a way to combine her passion for drawing with her love of drag culture when the idea hit. As she put it: “The hair, the fashion, the makeup, the nails ― who wouldn’t want to color all that?”
To find her subjects, Searles scoped out local drag and gay clubs and approached kings and queens to be her muses. If they were into the idea ― and everyone was ― Searles snapped some reference photos and watched them perform. She then translated the images into black-and-white line drawings just waiting to be glammed up with a rainbow treatment.
Searles is currently raising funds to produce the book on Kickstarter, and she’s already earned more than double her initial goal of $2,000. Many excited backers have written to her suggesting their favorite local clubs and queens, and Searles is hoping to visit and illustrate as many of them as possible.
Through her project, Searles hopes to pay tribute to the drag community while also helping some adults engage in some much needed stress mitigation. “If I can provide some stress relief, humor, and honor these amazing drag performers, I’ll be very happy,” she continued. “If you haven’t been out to a show recently, get out there and support your local drag queens!”
Support Make 100: Drag Queens of the South on Kickstarter before March 7 here.
