Initially, for my Once Upon A Time project, I thought I’d do Hansel and Gretel. It’s iconic, everybody knows it, and with just three main characters, it seemed like an easy mark. But as I began looking at some source images for witches, I ran across a picture of the Baba Yaga, a witch figure in Russian folklore. Perhaps more importantly, I ran across a picture of her house. I knew then that given the choice between drawing a gingerbread house and drawing a house that runs around on chicken legs, chicken legs would win every time. Below are some character sketches for our heroine, Natasha, the evil Baba Yaga, and her amazing chicken-legged house. More to come… Dr. Bernardy
