Vasalisa’a Magic Doll Gallery

 

These are from Vasalisa the Brave, a Russian fairytale, sort of like Cinderella except instead of a fairy godmother, her dying mother gives her a doll who helps her with her chores. I’d never seen any pictures of that magic bit of the story and I thought it would be funny to try to show this tiny supernatural doll doing all these big tasks that are already hard for a regular person. Those doll images came out really easily. I was like, why are you wasting your time drawing this stupid little doll? And I was realizing that I need help, it was about needing help. Everyone needs help. And also it is about finding your powerful inner resources to get crap done anyway, even when it feels totally impossible and crushing when jobs seem so vast you can’t wrap your brain around them. When you are at your wits end, you summon that doll. I am sending the cabbage one out as a postcard. It is universally admired. But the splitting wood one is one of the funniest.