Thinking about the designs for her shield and sword and finally stepping into some digital sketching. I feel like I need to tell a little more about her story so that her design makes more sense...
For those who don’t know, Vasilisa is a character from an old Russian tale. The tale is called "Vasilisa, the beautiful", and tells the story of a young girl who as mistreated by her stepmother and stepsister (just like Cinderella). One day, they planned on killing Vasilisa by putting out the fire of their fireplace and sending her to the forest to ask for fire from Baba Yaga, who was an evil witch hat most likely would kill her and eat her flesh. Meeting with Baba Yaga, she was told to do a series of house chores that seemed impossible. But Vasilisa had with her a doll given to her by her mother, a doll who gave her advice on how to overcome all the challenges Baba Yaga proposed to her. Therefore, after she completed all the tasks, she earned from the witch a stick with a skull on it, with fire inside to lit back her fireplace. She came back home and when she arrived, the skull burned her stepmother and stepsisters to death, setting the young girl free from torment. In some versions of this story, she marries a prince in the end.
In my redesign, Vasilisa came to Baba Yaga to ask for freedom of her life of servitude to her evil family, and after completing a few tasks, she received a magic sword with a skull on it that could project fire and burn enemies, so she could kill her evil stepnother and sisters, but in exchange had to promisse to serve Baba Yaga forever as a mercenary.
Vasilisa is a young female knight who doesn't care too much about marrying an enchanted prince, since she doesn't need any. Also, she is skilled in battle, but very fragile, using her armor and shield as a way to show that she can also be tough and merciless (hence the big shoulder pads). The doll is constantly there with her, always telling her what to do when she needs help.
Her shield was also given by Baba Yaga and has her face on it as a way to intimidate enemies. I tried different designs for the shield but definitely prefer it with Baba Yaga’s face on it.
The sword is a character of its own. It is intelligent and can use its power of ts own will, belonging to Vasilisa but not necessarily obeying her command.
I really recommend that any of you who didn't know Vasilisa's tale before to read it, it's really great and has a lot of other details that I didn't mention here. There are other stuff related to this character that I will reveal little by little in order not to bore any of you, but the summary is basically that...
Anyway, feel free to give any feedback, it's really helpful!

