Old to New 12: Vavnica, Tough as Nails, yet Sweet as Antifreeze

{Theme Song: The Ghost Inside, Broken Bells}

For a change, today we venture North to Siskad.  Here is a small island that's managed never to be conquered by convincing the world they want neither the miserably cold, unyielding land, nor the contrary, abrasive Siskadians.

While this strategy works well in deflecting would-be tyrants it doesn't exactly make Siskadians a Popular people.  Fortunately, they don't particularly care.  It's a hard life in Siskad and sometimes little things like "feelings" must be overlooked.

Yet here again Siskad is as contradictory as its people.  While everyone is expected to work hard and use any special talents they have for the good of all, their personal lives are considered just that - personal.  Despite a Siskadian's general prickliness and well fortified heart, almost all marry for love and a Separating (called just that with a Capital "S") is almost unheard of and mourned like a death in the family.


Vavnica is a fairly typical Siskadian, if perhaps more internationally aware.  From an early age Vavnica trained in infiltration, stealth and information gathering.  She excelled, but hated the life.  Using those same skill sets, Vavnica escaped her schooling in order to run home to her mother.  This ended after her mother's death in Vavnica's teen years.

Vavnica only lasted a few years longer in her selected profession before she was "retired" due to perceived instability.  With such an unusual resume and not much in the way of job prospects in Siskad, Vavnica chose to leave and offer her services to the Humanitarian-minded United Champions of the Defenseless (UCD for short).

Her background combined with her intense, but cool facade can make other UCD members nervous at times, but no one doubts her abilities.  Time and again she proves you Don't want to come up against Vavnica Peerkchnes.

My first drawing of Vavnica has been touched up a bit, so I also included my second - my update is something of a mish-mesh of the two pictures anyway, rather than a straight redo.

I know when I posted Aiya I complained about the difficulty of dark skin - now I must add that extremely fair skin isn't a breeze either!  It's ridiculously easy to "muddy" the color, and my first layer in marker had WAY too much pink.  I had to go over her skin several times with colored pencils before I finally got it right - though even now I worry she has too much color...

I also included another picture, an early attempt at greater realism.  A straight take on picture one, this was done on scrapbooking paper using Crayola colored pencils, so be merciful =]