Artechna

MINOR ♱ ORDER (see pinned post), OC Illustration, Historical genre writer, pianist, music producer, Dostoevsky fan

[artechna]

Introduction!

Ah yes, now that my blog isn't a desolate wasteland I should make one of those neat intro posts I see the cool bloggers having.

I'm Artechna! I am 18 use she/they pronouns! I am a Dostoevsky enjoyer as well as an original character artist and writer. Additionally, I am a music producer and pianist. Much of my stuff is historical fiction based. I have an old soul I guess ;)

This blog is mostly dedicated to my Dostoevsky fan art, theories, and yaps.

Current Dostoevsky works read:

Crime and Punishment

The Brothers Karamazov

White Nights

A Nasty Business

The Meek One

Demons

Currently reading: ...

Dostoevsky next to read:

Notes From Underground

The Idiot

The House of the Dead

The Double

Eternal Husband

...

However, I also have an ongoing novel called Minor Order. It takes place in 20th century Hungary and follows a priest who finds a baby abandoned at his church and so raises him alongside his deacon (later assistant priest) as his own. This child then goes on his own journey of self-discovery, exploring the secular world through the interesting lens of a strictly religious upbringing. So if you see art of some guys in cassocks or of a white-haired angelic-looking kid, that’s Minor Order stuff :)

[artechna]

My vocaloid Crime and Punishment song, “Extraordinary Man”, has been released on YouTube!

Here are most of the frames from the promotional video, though I encourage you to listen to the song and watch the video because I spent a lot of time producing and editing it aghhg. It is a bountiful day for the Raskolnikov lovers today...

[artechna]

I've seen people talk about modern day Dostoevsky headcanons. like Pyotr would generate AI images of Shatov to fool von Lembke or Ivan Karamazov would be a nerdy ragebaiter on reddit or something

Well personally I like to think that modern day Raskolnikov would have a guilty pleasure of watching ASMR before bed every night. i think hed totally lay on his crusty couch in his tiny apartment with a badly cracked Samsung Galaxy S7 or something and, in his half-asleep state, would be absolutely mesmerized by those squishy wax cracking videos. and then he'd hit those micro-sleeps that happen as you're doom scrolling and eventually start snoring with "30 minutes of creamy tapping ASMR" still playing. and that's how he gets any sleep at night

[artechna]

I think I locked in how I draw Raskolnikov

Expect a ton of Crime and Punishment art soon hehe 🤭

[artechna]

Some more Minor Order (my religious historical fiction story) drawings/random doodles!!! :3 First we have Father Benedek and Deacon Ferenc in their pink... er, I mean ROSE vestments. So coquette. Then we have My Little Minor Order Pony (don't ask)

Benedek timeline :) he's grown so much

Eszter :( She makes me sad she didn't deserve anything she got

Ferenc after Book 1 and before Book 2. Me when ohhh ohh how do i show a character getting older so I just make them grow out their hair and it works every time.

"Keresztapa" means "godfather" in Hungarian. Or, quite literally "cross father." This is what baby Asztrik (the foundling child the church takes in) calls Ferenc as he grows up because Ferenc truly is his godfather.

awwwww and lastly we got baby BABY first year seminarian Ferenc alongside Father Szabó, the priest who used to always visit the orphanage Ferenc grew up in. He was the closest thing Ferenc ever had to a parental figure, and he is the one who recommended Ferenc pursue the priesthood. Also the one who cared for him after he was attacked :( (hence the scar and chipped tooth he later has, which isn't present here yet.)

And then.... ugh. The antagonist. Rajmond.... worst man ever

anyways thanks for taking a peek! stay tuned for more stuff about this story!

[tatsuyamss]

Uh oh demon rottt…

[artechna]

do you have any designs for the crime and punishment girls ? (i love sonya y dunechka sm) also big fan of your art !! hope you have a nice day

HIIII SORRY FOR LATE REPLY OMG JUST SAW THIS 😭

YES i do have a few drawings of my interpretations of Sonya and Dunya! this was when just reading the Constance Garnett translation of the book that I came up with these designs sooo

this was my Dunya and I really leaned into making her resemble Rodya as I’m pretty sure the book says they carry some resemblance? (Also I just think it’s really funny if Razumikhin is raving about her beauty so much when. she’s literally. lookin like Rodya but female LMAOOOOO) she is such a baddie I love her.

then we got a Sonya and Rodya I drew a while ago

I choose to believe their bond is just very deep platonic understanding love. It def doesn’t read like traditional romance and I like it that way!!!

Also another Sonya

save her! the way Dostoevsky portrays prostitution not as moral failure but as personal sacrifice is so good tbh. i feel like i wouldn't have expected that from an 1860s book. to have a prostitute character not be sexualized but rather portrayed as the doorway to redemption is just great.

i feel like women play a big role in Crime and Punishment in general as well. Like you start to notice that whenever Rodya helps someone, it is almost always a woman or female presence (the drunk girl, the organ grinder girl, Katerina Ivanova with Marmeladov’s death, Sonya with the stolen money) and also he is almost always helped by women (his mother and sister’s love, that woman on the street who gave him a coin, Sonya’s guidance)

I almost feel like the women serve to pull him back to humanity. He can’t maintain his theoretical extraordinary detachment when he faces real suffering which he often sees through the lives of the women around him, or when he receives affection which again is also a lot of times from female characters around him. (and razumikhin)

i love them sm. live laugh love the girls!

[monarchofcats]

hi! can I use your Dunya art for a post (with credit)? obv it’s fine if not; thanks :)

[artechna]

@monarchofcats of course!!! I would love to see my dunya art shared around! Just credit ofc

[artechna]

Ngl I got too used to drawing my catholic clergy characters and now I just HATE drawing detailed shoes…

I kid you not literally what I do for them is I use the lasso tool to vaguely make the shape of a foot/shoe and then i just bucket tool. When the character design is intricate vestments no one is looking at the shoes. Or when its a plain black cassock the shoes blend in.

So now I keep getting impatient when I have to stop and detail a pair of oxfords or lace up boots. Why cant!!! I just have!!! the black nothing shoe!!!

[artechna]

Book 2 Benedek and Ferenc 🥺

There will be a 16 year time skip between books 1 and 2. Here is more middle-aged Benedek and Ferenc… Now are they both priests of the same parish (Benedek is the main parish priest/pastor, Ferenc is the assistant priest/curate) but the dynamic duo is still as silly as ever!

[artechna]

I need to show you guys the 1968 Heron Books edition of Demons (The Possessed) by Dostoevsky! It is divided into two volumes and contains these cool gesture drawing ink illustrations by Philippe Jullian! It was only $30ish for both of them on Etsy and it was such a steal!!!!!!!!

We start off with this cool sketch of Dostoevsky in the front. Then we get my favorite: Stepan and Varvara yapping

Then we have all these bangers. There are a surprising amount of illustrations! Seeing as I didn't know there were any at all, I was very pleasantly surprised to find all of these:

1: Stavrogin pulling Gaganov by the nose 2: Varavara talking to Dasha about the marriage 3: Lizaveta and Mavriky 4: The Lebyadkins 5: Pyotr 6: Shatov and Stavrogin 7: Fedka 8: The von Lembkes 9: The Duel 10: Lyamshin playing his Franco-Prussian war composition 11: Karmazinov 12: The Meeting at Virginsky's 13 & 14: The Fête 15: Lizaveta after the fête 16: The Death of Shatov 17: The Death of Kirillov 18: Stepan's Last Peregrination

Overall a very cool edition of Demons! I genuinely cannot believe I scored it for so cheap... It's a real prize in my Dostoevsky collection now

[artechna]

Ferenc! My little deacon character haha.

Still feeling very inspired after Easter Vigil 💛 🕯️ God is good. Excpect more Minor Order content soon!

[artechna]

Happy Easter! Here is some Holy Week Benedek and Ferenc to celebrate!

I’ve had such a wonderful experience participating in the church this year… my time as a catechumen was so special, and I really consider Minor Order a synthesis of what I have learned about Catholicism in the process. It is so special to me and I am so glad you guys like the story ♥️

Also…

At Easter Vigil last night I was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church! It was a surreal night, I will say. I almost cried at just how intense the sense of holiness and community was.

My relationship with the church has been tumultuous throughout my life, but this year has provided me with so many experiences, sensations, and connections that have mended that rift and frankly made me a much better person as a result. My spiritual experiences and beliefs are still very personal to me, but the Church has provided me a tether to something loving and constant. I am so grateful for all of my friends and family members that have supported me in this ♥️ 🥺 the world is beautiful

[artechna]

Mentioned this to a few others and they were very surprised at this overlooked detail in Demons

In the scene where Pyotr leaves, he refers to Erkel as his “relative” meaning that the two are actually somehow related???? And no it’s not a mistranslation. In the original russian he refers to Erkel as his “родственникь” which refers to familial relation

So the two options are 1. this is true and Erkel is related to Pyotr (likely via Pyotr’s mother’s side, I like to think.) Or 2. this is totally fake and Pyotr was lying for the sake of a convenient introduction. What do you think? Did any of yall catch this in the book?

Oh yeah also doesn’t help how in the 2014 adaptation the actors for Pyotr and Erkel actually look pretty similar in my opinion

[falloutnewnobody]

i like that april fools is during holy week this year. its like fasting on fridays during lent, we're doing little pranks in preparation for jesus to pull off the greatest prank of all.

[n0pe-studi0s]

Best chapter title award of the book so far has got to go to:

[artechna]

varvara petrovna and stepan trofimovich 😢

i know stepan is like. not a great guy. but i couldn’t help but feel endeared by him while reading. and varvara is like the original girlboss. she treats him like her friend sometimes, her enemy at others, her child occasionally, her doll, her invention, her responsibility… aughhh me when queerplatonic old people!!! genuinely cried at the end

[artechna]

Some teenage Fedka and baby Pyotr I guess 🥺