Final Woland

Fagotto

Behemoth

Azazello

About my final work:

Those are four characters from Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “Master and Margarita”, main members of Woland’s retinue: Fagotto, Cat Behemoth, Azazello and Woland himself. All the designs are done on a A4 piece of paper with a pencil. No colors, no shadows: just straight lines and shapes. All of them are drawn in different poses, from different angles – so there was no

Looking at the image of Woland, we see a man in coat with a cane. His eyes are of different color. He seems quite young, but has wrinkles and pretty strange expression on his face. Actually, it is quite hard to say, what is his age and this is easy to explain: in Bulgakov’s novel Woland is clearly called a Satan. So, he is a Devil, an immortal creature, evil opponent of the God. The image of the Devil or Mephistopheles, who was Woland’s prototype, is often associated with temptation and seduction. So, Woland himself should provoke those associations, so he should have charisma and attractive appearance. However, this opinion is quite contradictory: appearance described in the book is weird, Woland has few physical defects such as lameness, curved mouth, different eyes. Also, he as an immortal is supposed to be wise. This is often associated with age. So, it is difficult to define at what age exactly should he look like, should he be young and attractive or a wise and elderly. It is nicely depicted on the picture.

His eyebrows and hair line are usual for evil characters, but overall he does not seem that evil.

Fagotto is thin, tall and weird. His pose shows that he is always moving, even if he is just standing on one place. He has pince-nez, mustaches, jockey cap and trousers put on very highly. He jacket and trousers should be checked, but this is a coloring issue.

Cat Behemoth looks demonic and cute at the same time – and this is what the author wanted to reach. He is fat, because he is associated with the demon of Gluttony, but he also has slender legs, may be too long for the body, and big ears (reminding of Gremlins) to make him seem strange and twisted.

Azazello has a wall-eye, derby hat, one visible from the outside fang and cream in his hand. That is because his main task in the novel was to give this cream to Margarita. His arms are longer then legs and he has an aggressive facial expression that make him seem a bit ugly, and this was the author’s aim as well.

All the drawings are slightly different because of different scales, pencils used and the nature of characters. Still, they could exist together in one cartoon. The cat seems the most outstanding because it is not a human and needs a different drawing approach. Also, it has the smallest number of lines because he doesn’t have many clothes on him, so he seems a lot cleaner than others. But this is not such an issue – there are some scenes in the book where it is dressed like a human.

The style itself is not so primitive and this will make those characters difficult to animate, but still, it is fine. By that characteristic we can compare them to Disney characters.

Overall, this is quite an original vision of the characters. There was no cartoon series on Master and Margarita yet, so we have nothing to compare with. But all the characters are recognizable and charismatic, so they have at least a right to be animated.

Artistic Statement:

This is a character design for a cartoon series based on Mikhail Bulgakov's novel called  "Master and Margarita". I did the four main characters from Woland’s retinue: valet Koroviev (Fagotto), cat Behemoth, Azazello and Woland himself. Each of them is invented by Bulgakov, but inspired and based on other sources.

Woland is a Devil. His name was taken from Goethe’s Faust, where Mephistopheles called himself Woland. A very charismatic character, he has few special features that mark him out: eyes of different color, curved mouth, lameness. He is Satan, so he is often considered to be a negative character, but I can not agree with that. Persons who are behaving evil are Koroviev and Behemoth, while Woland seems to be tired of this. In my opinion, characteristics associated with him are wisdom and loneliness.  Appearance of my Woland is slightly different from the described one, but jut slightly.

Koroviev or Fagotto is a demon, the most evil character in the novel, I suppose. His image is strange and grotesque. It is said that he had small eyes, thin mustaches, in checked jacket and trousers. Socks are visible, jockey cap on his head. He is very tall and skinny. He is said to have a very mocking facial expression. However, knowing better the story, we assume, that he wasn’t always like this. There was a time when he was a knight.

Cat Behemoth is a giant black cat, demon as well. His name is associated with the demon of gluttony or the ancient beast. Most of the time he seems glad and relaxed, eating or drinking, sometimes he is dressed like a man. A companion of Fagotto, usually they make wicked things together.

Azazello is a hitman, short, broad-shouldered and red-haired, with one fang jut out of his mouth. Also he had a wall-eye and a derby hat. His name is inspired by Azazael, a fallen angel, that taught men how to war and women how to adorn themselves. 

All the characters are drawn in my own style, not defined by any animation studios. But the closest is Disney, I suppose. At first I drew them in my common style used for illustrations and then transformed them into something more cartoonish.