WIP: Evgenia Character Design

There are some exciting things coming up this year that I’ll be mentioning later, and because of the aforementioned exciting thing, I wanted to update my Evi character designs from 2018*. And then, all of the sudden, if you guys have been paying any attention to world news, you’ll know what’s been going on in Ukraine. Ooof.

Timely since her character and designs are, in particular, rooted in Ukrainian culture** and Soviet history? I would say rather untimely, since I don’t think there’s ever a great time for war. I don’t want to talk about this too much since… well, it’s hard to grasp what’s going on and what will happen, but it is very sobering to think about. Apologies in advance for straying outside the art discourse here, but as my storytelling is influenced by geopolitical events, I think it is worthy to say a thing or two on this subject.

My fellow foreign policy/strategy classmates in Washington, D.C. are all abuzz with thoughts on Russian foreign policy (Putin only has so many years left to live… what happens afterwards?), the impact of sanctions (i.e., it hurts but it doesn’t hurt that bad yet), the stock market (the Ruble is down but not catastrophically as of this week) and whatnot. More “real” is hearing about my Ukrainian Twitter mutuals and Discord friends trying to get enough money to flee the country or those who didn’t bunkering down and hiding behind mattresses at night, the images of people sleeping in subway stations as though it’s the Blitz… Regardless of the perspective, open conflict between two modernized states in Europe–that’s a big deal. The question of state sovereignty, whether other countries will be involved (beyond sanction-type actions), what technologies will be used, etc. etc.--I think what happens in Ukraine will be applicable to many regions of the world for years to come.

And for lack of better words, my heart goes out to all the people caught up in this mess, those who are living in what has now become a war zone. I’ve been quite interested in military history and aesthetics for some time now, but if I’ve learned anything from that history, it’s that war (especially modern warfare) is extremely destructive and civilians are the ones who lose. So I can draw all the handsome uniforms I want, but at the end of the day, I think about Lex Fridman’s (super sweet researcher-turned-podcaster who is going to interview people in Ukraine and Russia, apparently including Putin) comment when he tweeted that “War is pain.”

*I’ve included the character design from 2018. Time really flies but I feel consoled by how there’s a clear improvement! I guess it’s just important to keep on flinging yourself against the wall.

**And to clarify, Evi’s folk costume is based on Ukrainian folkwear… much of the folk costumes of certain ethnicities in the Farewell My Homeland universe is based on various traditions of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Turkey, etc.