#vdtwof

[miapcain]

Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For Masterpost

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VDtWOF is a slice of life comic set in 13th century Bohemia, featuring characters from my in-progress Vesna games. It generally updates every Friday. Fanart, asks, comments and feedback are always super welcome!

(This should go without saying, but racists, terfs and so on get blocked on sight. Don't have time for that kind of thing.)

Previous Asks | Meta posts | Fanart

[lutzlig]

i love you vesna.........

(translation of "ob sie des wohl vertrogt?": 'is that good for her?')

[miapcain]

"Sit" Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For - 12/2/24

Reblogs and feedback appreciated!

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[miapcain]

"Fetch" Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For - 9/2/24

Reblogs and feedback appreciated!

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[miapcain]

"Down!" Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For - 16/2/24

Reblogs and feedback appreciated!

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[miapcain]

"Feminine Hygiene" Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For - 23/2/24

Reblogs and feedback appreciated!

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[miapcain]

"Bestiary Lesson" Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For - 15/3/24

Reblogs and feedback appreciated!

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[miapcain]

"First Glimpse" Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For - 19/4/24

Reblogs and feedback appreciated!

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[miapcain]

"Waffenknechte" Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For - 30/3/24

Reblogs and feedback appreciated!

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[miapcain]

temp background for an upcoming Vesna strip that feels worth posting by itself

[miapcain]

"Journey South" Vesna: Dogs to Watch Out For - 5/4/24 Thanks to Manfred Schäfer for the translation of the Paternoster into Middle High German

Reblogs and feedback appreciated!

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[lutzlig]

i love you vesna ......

[miapcain]

I'm in awe of your background work! I know you've posted some WIPs before, but I'd love to know more about how you approach it and what your process is like.

Thank you so much! It's lovely that people appreciate it so much.

I work professionally as an environment artist for games, and I've always liked drawing environments a bit more than characters. A big part of Vesna for me is that I want the setting to be strong and well defined. This maybe characterizes a lot of my work; a university game I directed and produced art for, Rhythm of Triverz, had a LOT of work put into making it feel like a cohesive, real place.

For the comic, I want to convey something similar, which is a medieval setting where sunshine and colour are allowed to coexist along drab stormy ruined castles. I want to depict something the reader can understand as being real and lived in, so I based the main castle on an actual ruin I've fallen in love with, Burgruine Ruttenstein in the Austrian Mühlviertel. I've visited it a couple times and taken hundreds of photos, so I have a lot of reference material. To supplement that, I created a rudimentary 3D mesh of the castle, though I haven't used it a ton so far.

For a more specific example, Franzesca's room is based on an actual room in the ruin's Wohnturm (dwelling tower), including her big stone window seat:

(It's a lot bigger irl)

Most of the backgrounds are drawn freehand. I always do a sketch of every page before doing the inking, and sometimes they're almost identical throughout, but sometimes they change dramatically when I realize it needs more detail or a different value distribution:

I've been drawing long enough that I don't really need to thumbnail much for these. I mostly know what the panels will look like before I draw them, though my execution often leaves something to be desired if you ask me :p

Thank you for the ask!

[miapcain]

Are any puppies more desirable than others?

[miapcain]

that one ask made me wonder, is Vesna a hound? does she have an assigned breed or one she's inspired by, or is she just like, a dog? also what species is Ljuba? I assumed a mouse but now i am unsure for some reason

Hello! There's actually going to be some lore on this in the next update. Vesna and Snježana are both wolves (in this setting, that's a bit of an arbitrary definition, despite Snježa's insistence otherwise), that is to say, mostly wolf with some dog thrown in. Snježa is obviously part samoyed and maybe pomeranian. Vesna is probably part collie or some sort of other shepherd dog, but it ultimately doesn't matter much- socially they're seen as wolves, which comes with certain labels in the setting.

The hound thing is more a literal title: She's Franzesca's dog. That's her job. More on that later!

Ljuba is a house mouse. She has light fur but is so blonde that her hair and eyelashes are even lighter. She can barely see but doesn't have glasses. (Bonus: first ljuba sketch)

Thank you so much for the ask! I love when people have questions about Vesna, and yours are always especially good!

[miapcain]

Which language(s) do Vesna and the gang speak in canonically?

Thank you for the ask! The main characters all converse in Middle High German. The current story takes place in the 1240s, during the german Ostsiedlung, or "eastern colonisation;" Franzesca's family moved from Merania (between Innsbruck and modern southern Bavaria) to southern Bohemia, where most people would be speaking Old/Medieval Czech. Vesna and Snježana were born further north but raised in the household, and Vesna was never taught much Czech; Franzesca's father holds very serious anti-slavic views and prefers members of the household to speak German (this will become pretty important later on in the story).

Ljuba speaks Czech as her first language, and Franzesca knows French and some Latin.

(Unrelated bonus art)