Okay so!! Here's a little wap design compilation - not exhaustive, both because of the image limit and because there's many things I'm not settled on but I want to post some of it at least~
Organised by families because familial resemblence or lack thereof is one of my favourite factors in chardes! And because Tolstoy is so good at creating these family dynamics of shared traits! First, the Bolkonskys:
Lise, Mlle Bourienne and Nikolai jr. not included for now, maybe later. The shared traits I gave them all (therefore presumably coming from Nikolai's side) are sharp, angular features with a beaked nose and high cheekbones, thin figures and straight, dark hair. Both Andrei and Nikolai are described as short, so initially I wanted to apply this to them all, but then I thought it would be cool to emphasise Andrei's similarity to his father AND separate Marya out by making her much taller than them. It works really well because Andrei and Nikolai are both short yet straightened out to their full height while Marya cowers and hunches to hide hers - which also works to create the unattractive figure she's described as having. I use heads to note height - as in, how many heads tall a character is - mostly because numerous manga art tutorials ingrained those in me <:3c Nikolai has his signature bushy eyebrows, and his clothes and hair are inspired by his depiction in the first soviet wap movie because I really liked it!
In general I spent the most time on Andrei, both because he's my favourite and because he has a lot of tantalisingly sparse and at times interestingly contrasting descriptions - he's meant to look unassuming, his small and slender figure hiding his impressive stamina and his cushy administrative position contrasting with the rugged hussars (and his small hands are mentioned as well) but he has sharp features, and his design should showcase his proud, decisive nature as well.
The Rostovs! Not including the count and countess because while I have some features in mind I haven't made up my mind yet on the overall designs, and excluding Vera for reasons I'll divulge later. These Rostov kids are all energetic, emotionally driven and strong-willed and I wanted to reflect that in their designs - most of all in their hair, which is curly and kind of fluffy, making big, untamed shapes - I decided this they would have inherited from the Count. They're all rather short (I think some of the Rostovs are described as short so I extended it to the whole family) and a little stockier than the Bolkonskys - Natasha's figure is really incosistent because she gains and loses weight a lot over the book, but I settled on the slightly heavier side mostly to contrast with Sonya. I also love freckles and always associate them with energy and youthfulness so they got given to the Rostovs - presumably from the Count's side again. And their eyes and hair are all black or dark brown!
BIG RAMBLING RANT: The Countess is described as having "oriental features" and I wanted to incorporate that into the kids because it's like the most detail we ever get on someone's overall facial features lol but it turned out kind of frustratingly vague. I think my first idea was towards Georgia because Pierre mentions a woman with Georgian features in 1812, and because my ballets russes research included a very orientalist ballet about a georgian queen. I didn't find very good references though and turned next to Armenia, and when I found someone talking about common Armenian features that fit what I already had in mind for the Rostovs I ended up using that. However, later I realised those countries are in Western Asia and don't really fit the descriptor of "oriental (eastern)" from the perspective of Russia... Now I'm looking more towards the Kalmyk and Bashkir people after seeing them mentioned in one of my interlibrary books so I might revise the Rostovs yet. I did get kind of attached to the nose though so I'll do my best to keep it haha
The odd ones out in the Rostov household!! Sonya is, I believe, related to the Rostovs on the Count's side so maybe it would make sense to give her the fluffy hair and freckles, but she has enough descriptions in the book to form a separate design on her own (and she's only a second cousin to the Rostov kids, so it's pretty far away anyway). She's compared to a graceful kitten, described as almost unattractively thin and with a sallow skin, so I thought it would fit her to have a slightly unwell air, with portruding collarbones and a slight hunch. She also has her dark double braid.
Vera was fun once I got the idea to make her look very different from her siblings - to mirror her personality being completely different (cool, impassionate, meanspirited at times) and to visually reflect how she's disliked by the Countess - perhaps almost looking like she's not her parents' child 👀 She's taller and slimmer than her siblings, with straighter and lighter in colour hair, and her features are more smooth and soft. No freckles either.
The Kuragins! Those guys are fun. I have Anatole as the tallest in the cast (save for Pierre), and Helene as the tallest woman, with Ippolit the same height as her. Helene and Ippolit in general are described as having the same features so they ended up almost looking like twins! Later I'll talk a bit more about their facial features and hair but in terms of silhouettes, Helene has to have her round shoulders and impressive bosom (and low neckline), while Anatole has to look all broad-shouldered and masculine. He was actually the hardest to draw because I kept feeling like his head was too small and his whole body too long... I might go back and make him a bit broader still. A book I have says the elite life guards of the Russian army were known for their impressive, immaculate appearance, with some men padding their uniforms to add volume to their chest... That made me think of Anatole lmao.
A little roll call to show everyone's height in relation to each other.
More about the Kuragins! I tackled Helene with the aim to make her beautiful by the standards of the time, and luckily there's actually an 1812 bust of the Greek Helene! It was too poerfect of a coincidence so I leaned heavily into it. I find that typical features of ancient Greek or 19th century Hellenistic busts are a very straight nose that flows smoothly from the forehead, a very round jawline with a somewhat portruding chin and that particular curve of the neck. I gave Helene all of those along with heavily-lidded, downturned eyes and an expression that hopefully conveys calm confidence and intelligence. Ippolit is supposed to have the same features but made to look ugly by his stupid expression - this actually turned out easier than I thought? Though it might just be that the moustache looks kind of stupid - maybe I should try a version without it. Anatole I thought ought to look impressive and masculine so in the end I kept the squarer jaw and strong forehead (and I couldn't resist the slicked back hair) but I considered a more Hellenistic version too, with the short curls and round jaw. Helene's hair was tricky because none of the styles I saw felt quite right - I settled on a sort of combo of the Hellenistic curls from the statue but a bit looser with the braid she's described to have in the book. She'd also probably wear a lot of hair accessories but I'll have to do more research on those.
More Natasha and Sonya, and Andrei - Andrei is so difficult!! I always kind of oscillate between "stern, strong-willed soldier", "sharp-featured intellectual" and "soft pampered prince/troubled poet" (where I try and fail to imitate this gorgeous illustration by Vadimir Serov). The Brutus haircut is tempting in its historical accuracy, but I'm just a little bit too fond of the immaculately slicked back hair...
Edit: I completely forgot @visualnoteslibrary was on Tumblr!! Thank you so much for collecting all the descriptions, you spared me quite the Easter egg hunt through the Gutenberg version <3
