Kacakaca

love hetalia,especially historical stuff and female characters//hope you enjoy my art :) //have loads of headcanons waiting to be drawn and written//also have a bunch of fanfictions waiting to be translated on AO3 yet I havn't finished even one: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kacakaca/works

[kacakacafall]

She went on,

not knowing how far she had gone.

There were voices within her,

and they would not cease.

Before she knew it,

only moonlight and branches remained,

closing in around her.

(Rant below)

So, this has been sitting in my head for way too long. I don’t even know if I’ll ever finish the whole thing, but I finally got these first three panels to a point where I can show them.

It’s a very niche setup — 17th century female England during the English Civil War. She ends up in the colonies already half-broken, and then finds herself with a child she never asked for, in a world where everyone expects her to just accept it as something given.

So this is basically the beginning — just her wandering at night with the newborn in her arms, not really aware of where she’s going.

I was trying to go for something that feels like 17th century puritan imagery plus a cursed children’s book vibe, not sure if I actually pulled it off, but that was the idea.

Not sure when (or if) there’ll be more, but this part exists now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[kacakacafall]

Recent doodle dump, because I draw at the speed of continental drift. 😭

So, I have a lot of sketches sitting around that are presentable enough to show, even though they are nowhere near the level of polish I would want for a “proper” post. Recently I’ve been trying to draw less like I’m making quick isolated sketches, and more like I’m trying to express a concept, a story, or a very specific historical/character mood.

Which means everything takes forever. Naturally. Because apparently I chose the most inefficient way to have fun.

So here are some recent unfinished things, character studies, fake comic fragments, and visual notes.

Basically, I am treating the internet as a public dumping ground for my thoughts with pictures attached.

1. Bryce Wayne / woman Batman situation

Yes, this is my “what if Batman was a woman?” situation.

Bryce Wayne is a character I’ve already written a lot about on AO3, and now I’m trying to pin down what she actually looks like in my head.

The concept is: a terribly handsome woman, nicknamed “the Vampire Duchess” by the tabloids.

She should look aristocratic, cold, haunted, absurdly good-looking, and still very clearly a woman. I’m still not fully satisfied with the design, but she is getting there.

2–3. Female Mongolia character study

This is me trying to refine my female Mongolia design, another character I wrote a lot before I actually drew her.

The core idea is that she has to be ugly.

And by ugly, I mean specifically outside modern East Asian beauty standards for women: darker skin, high cheekbones, narrow eyes, a flatter nose, a rougher jawline, and a face that does not chase softness, cuteness, or fashionable delicacy.

I tried to make her look harsh, weathered, and physically intimidating. In my writing, I describe her skin as rough like a rocky mountain, so I gave her face that grainy texture with layered dots.

The hairstyle and clothing are based on medieval Mongolian women’s dress, around the 13th–14th century.

There is also a very juicy historical detail here. From what I’ve read, some stereotypical Western images of “East Asian features” seem to draw heavily from Mongolian facial features — narrow eyes, high cheekbones, flatter nose, and that specific facial structure. In the 19th century, some British racial “science” basically folded East Asian peoples into a Mongolian template.

And because the Mongol Empire’s reputation in the 19th century was already tied to the stereotype of the ruthless, primitive Asian conqueror, those features became part of a larger racist image of Asia.

So, in a very darkly funny historical way, the countries once conquered by the Mongol Empire already had plenty of reasons to blame it for many things. Now they can also blame it for helping supply Western racism with one of its favorite visual stereotypes.

Fantastic. History remains a trash fire with excellent footnotes.

The shadow version is also intentional. In my fanfiction, I often write her with half her face buried in darkness, with only her eyes gleaming out. That is part of how terrifying she is supposed to feel to other people.

4. Superhero comics in the 1930s

So, recently I’ve become very interested in American superhero comics, partly because I’m not American, so the whole thing feels fresh and bizarrely rich to me.

Superhero comics feel like a dense little container of American popular culture history. So naturally I had the idea: what if female America was reading superhero comics with a child in the 1930s, when superhero comics were just beginning as a new thing?

There is something very sweet about that image to me. A new kind of cheap, energetic, child-focused popular culture appears, and someone is just sitting there with a kid, discovering this weird new heroic fantasy together.

It makes me smile. It has that very specific “new mass culture just dropped” wholesomeness.

5. Female England and 17th-century Puritan horror

This is part of my long-running attempt to explore female England in the context of the 17th-century British colonies, Puritanism, religious pressure, and general psychological madness.

This is a long-ass project and I have no idea whether I will finish it, but I’m happy with the first two panels so far.

The mood I want is children’s-book horror: simple shapes, blackness, moonlight, fear, doctrine, and the feeling that something deeply wrong is being taught as normal.

6. Young female America under Puritan upbringing

Related to the previous idea: this is young female America as a child, raised by Puritans.

I imagine her childhood almost like a psychological horror film. Basically, she is living inside a cult-like world of religious fear, surveillance, punishment, and spiritual paranoia.

This is concept art trying to capture that atmosphere. I’m currently stuck on the hand motion, but the overall idea is there: small child, huge shadow, hostile world.

7. Ghost of Yōtei doodle

The last one is from Ghost of Yōtei.

Originally I wanted to draw the costume properly because I really like it, but game costumes are insane. The moment you try to recreate them on paper, you realize there are about five hundred layers, straps, textures, and tiny design decisions, and then your motivation starts quietly walking into the sea.

I still like the overall silhouette, especially the combination of the cape and the mask. It gives Atsu this “general returning from hell” feeling, which is extremely good.

So yes: unfinished, messy, but conceptually somehow alive. That is the current sketch dump.

[kacakacafall]

So, I’ve been playing Aether & Iron a lot recently, and I really enjoy it.

The main reason is the setting. It has this cool 1930s vibe, with many small historical references I enjoy — comic books, radio shows, and the whole noir-style storytelling.

I also like that all of this is given to a female protagonist. Gia’s design is really good. She looks like a very cool, handsome detective, and I like her personality a lot.

But there is one thing that makes me laugh every time: the pocket system.

In the game, some small items (like a notebook) have to go in the car. Meanwhile, the pockets can hold cash, jerky, shoes, a watch… even a dumbbell?

I don’t know what kind of coat this is, but I want one.

So yes, it felt so hilarious that I had to draw this.

[kacakacafall]

She came like night over the steppe.

Under her shadow, the world bled.

Cities burned, rivers darkened,

and men gave her the names of monsters and gods.

She rose like the sun over the world.

Under her light, the lands flourished.

Roads opened, goods and knowledge traveled far,

and distant lands learned to speak to one another.

Can’t believe I finally finished this thing😭 since I draw at the speed of continental drift😭

Anyway, this work is basically my own interpretation of the Mongol Empire’s duality: on one side, the sheer bloodiness of the conquests; on the other, the extraordinary flourishing and circulation that followed under Mongol rule. Both sides are extreme. And the more you actually read Mongol history instead of just absorbing whatever half-baked popular narrative is floating around, the more striking that contrast gets.

That’s what I wanted these two drawings to do.

Also, this is once again me indulging my favorite visual setup: nation personifications as giant deities looming over the world. I keep coming back to this format because it’s dramatic as hell, and it lets me load a huge amount of historical context into one image. I’ve used this kind of structure several times now for history-heavy concepts, and I still really love it.

And honestly, Mongol history is just ridiculously interesting. You’ve got a steppe nomadic power, and even within the wider nomadic world they started from a pretty underdog position, somehow expanding across enormous parts of Eurasia and leaving behind governance patterns, trade networks, and cultural consequences so large that later historians ended up talking about it as an early form of globalization. That is just an absurdly dramatic historical arc. Of course I had to draw it.

That’s also why the second image is full of goods: silk, spices like saffron and cinnamon, books, porcelain, coins. These things moved along Mongol trade routes. Even something as iconic as blue-and-white porcelain is tied into that larger Mongol-era trade history and the demand patterns connecting China with the Islamic world. Which is exactly the kind of historical detail I enjoy way too much.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this concept, and I hope people enjoy it too. And honestly, Hetalia fandom needs more Mongol Empire material. Once you actually get into the history, the amount of interpretive material is kind of insane, and it would be a waste not to play with it.

[kacakacafall]

Posting some work-in-progress drafts of my Mongol Empire duality concept again, because I’ve accepted that I draw at the speed of continental drift 😭

Also, recently I realize I’m kind of obsessed with the whole “giant deity sit on Earth” setup. I’ve already made a few pieces with that cosmic-scale staging, and I keep coming back to it because the vibe just works —you can load the whole historical context into the composition and it instantly feels mythic and dramatic. It’s fun as hell to draw.

Anyway, here’s today’s slow progress so far. Still rough, still messy, still nowhere near finished… but it’s getting there, for now I’m just letting myself enjoy the process.

[kacakacafall]

So…this is nowhere near a finished piece — just a concept sketch set that I decided to post before I lose momentum. My patience for refinement is… limited 😅 so I’ll probably come back to polish it later when I have the energy. For now, I just want to share the idea while it’s fresh.

Basically,these two drawings are meant to be a pair — a diptych exploring the duality of the Mongol Empire. I’ve always found Mongol empire history fascinating because it embodies two completely opposite narratives at once.

On one side, there’s the fearsome conqueror — the unstoppable steppe force that burned its way across Eurasia, remembered in so many records as a nightmare out of nowhere. The first sketch is about that — the ruthless, inhuman intensity, the unreadable face behind conquest, the sense that one person’s calm could mean devastation for half the world.

The second drawing mirrors that same figure after the storm — the empire-builder who created an unprecedented network across the continent. Despite the brutality of expansion, the Mongol era also brought peace, prosperity, and an early form of globalization. Trade routes opened, religions coexisted, ideas and products began to move with a freedom that feels shockingly modern for the 13th–14th centuries.

It was a time when goods from Baghdad, Samarkand, and Venice could meet Chinese artisans — when the blue-and-white porcelain that later defined Chinese craftsmanship was literally born from Islamic aesthetics and pigments imported from Iran and Iraq. Under nomadic mentality, the Mongol rulers gathered the finest skills and ideas from every corner of their empire and mashed them together into new cultural forms. Even the first world history book(Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh) compiled in Iran, existed only because the empire’s sheer size and curiosity made it possible: they collected records from across their territories and let scholars write a unified history of humanity.

So the first image is darkness — conquest and terror — and the second is light — order and connection. Same person, two worlds. I wanted the pair to feel like day and night versions of the same consciousness.

They’re still rough sketches, but I like how the structure already carries the story. Maybe later I’ll add more details — blood, maps, trade lines — but for now, this is the concept in its raw form.

[kacakacafall]

So, I have finished playing Ghost of Yotei, and one thing keeps cracking me up.

Like, the combat is brutal — every encounter leaves Atsu soaked in blood, calmly wiping her blade like it’s just another day at work. Total unstoppable killer energy. But then the game also gives her the purest animal-lover side quest vibe — she can pet wolves, foxes, and if you stay still long enough, a bird literally flies over and lands on her hand.

So now every time it happens, I can’t stop thinking: she’s basically a bloody version Disney princess who just committed mass murder. That contrast is so darkly funny I had to draw it.

Also (spoiler alert):

At first I thought it was just classic open-world chaos — two completely different moods jammed together because, well, game design. But the more I think about it, it actually fits the story.

It quietly shows that Atsu isn’t just a revenge-driven killer; she still has the will to live, to enjoy life. The fact that animals trust her says something deeper about who she is, even if the moment itself looks hilariously out of place.

So yeah — every time she does this, she’s basically a bloody Disney princess who accidentally foreshadows the game’s plot.

[kacakacafall]

Oh God, why? What kind of mockery, what kind of retribution is this?

A child born in a season of wrath, to carry the iniquity of her mother’s blood!

So, it’s been a while since I posted any art. funny story — I actually have multiple unfinished sketches sitting around, all stuck halfway. This one’s the most complete, so I figured I might as well post it first. I originally planned to pair it with other pieces from the same scenario, but those are even more stuck than this one, so… here it is on its own.

The drawing comes from my historical Hetalia head canon — nyo England during the Puritan era, holding baby nyo America. it’s set around the English Civil War: England, crushed by the chaos at home, ends up in the colonies and becomes this unwilling “holy mother.” she never asked for this child, but history forced her into that role.

I went for a children’s-book illustration vibe — soft, watercolor-ish texture but meant to feel quietly wrong. The composition borrows from religious iconography (halo, tear, etc.) but filtered through 17th-century Puritan austerity.

Also,this is definitely a “historical-nerd coded” piece Lol, this concept has been living rent-free in my head for a long time — I’ve explored it before, and I keep coming back to it, maybe I’ll get around to finishing the others later.

[kacakacafall]

More doodles! So here’s my Hetalia Mongolia, nobly struggling with Chinese text reading… and then gloriously defeated by a cat.

For anyone who doesn’t know, classical Chinese texts are hard to read — the written form was often completely different from how people actually spoke, and there were no punctuation marks at all. You had to figure out sentence breaks yourself. So imagine Mongolia here, trying to make sense of a wall of unreadable characters, and really struggling.

Now, about the cat, historically, Chinese scholars almost always kept cats, because mice could chew up precious books. So in any proper study room, there’s always a cat patrolling the shelves.

And since Mongolians traditionally kept dogs instead of cats, I like to think this fluffy book guardian would’ve been a new and irresistible creature to her. She’s sitting there, trying her best to decode Confucius… and then this tiny menace jumps on the desk like, “You’re done studying. Pet me.”

And of course, she couldn’t resist it.

[kacakacafall]

More doodles from The Ghost of Yotei! This time it’s all about Atsu’s hairstyle — because I’ve spent so much time looking at her back silhouette in-game that I start to be fond of it.

It’s basically a ponytail, but with that slightly braided lock that makes it look so effortlessly sharp. The balance between the tidy braid and the loose, messy strands underneath just feels… perfect — simple, stylish, and dashing at the same time.

[kacakacafall]

So, a little doodle about the fashion choice I made for Atsu when playing Ghost of Yotei.

One of the fun parts I have when playing the game is mixing all the armor, masks, and hats to create new looks, and this combination in particular really clicked for me — the red hat matches the red-and-blue armor beautifully, and somehow the whole set gives off a late Heian to early Kamakura warrior vibe. Especially when you’ve got a yari on the back, it just feels right.

[kacakacafall]

More 13th and 14th-century aph Mongolia! Two redrawn chibi versions and two new ones.Plus some rants below:

So lately I’ve been trying to figure out what APH Mongolia in my head canon would actually look and feel like , and theses drawings are kind of my attempt to capture her before and during her most powerful days.

Because honestly, the general impression of Mongolian history(both in popular culture and history study field) has been one-note for a long time — all warlords, blood, and conquest. Sure, that side existed, and in my head canon, aph Mongolia absolutely has that cold-eyed, eagle-like intensity (as how I described it in my fanfiction: half face buried in shadow, emotions unreadable). But that’s not all she is.

She’s also someone who laughs while riding horses across the steppe, who wears heavy ceremonial robes with casual ease, and who just… exists in that nomadic rhythm.

So these four drawings are me trying to fit all that into her— the warlord, the ruler, and the woman just living her life. Maybe too much to pack into four images, but well, that’s what all my aph Mongolia fanfics have been building toward anyway

[kacakacafall]

So… after not drawing for like a whole year, guess what dragged me back? Hetalia Mongolia. Like my previous obsessed characters are not niche enough Lol

So, I’ve been neck-deep in Mongol Empire history and my historical Hetalia fanfiction writing spiral, and apparently that was enough to make me design her at last. (You are welcome to read a bunch of very history-loaded fanfictions I wrote about her on my AO3, but fair warning: it's in Chinese)

Anyway, here’s my female Mongolia (14th-century edition), as a history nerd, of course I tried to keep the hairstyle and costume historically accurate. She’s the kind of woman who casually owned probably 78% of Eurasia’s wealth after committing about 1785 felonies in the 13th and 14th centuries— and yet, when you look at her, she feels grounded, even ordinary. That quiet contradiction is exactly the energy I wanted.

[kacakacafall]

More doodle because why not

More redraw version of nyo Japan and a quick rough sketch of 1880s nyo England

[kacakacafall]

Finally feeling like drawing again, so here goes some 18th/19th century nyo Japan, because I just can’t get enough of history costume and hairstyle.

More rants underneath, all sorts of nerdy historical costumes stuff:

All these years I have been waiting for someone to depict nyo Japan in fairly accurate historical costumes and hairstyles, but somehow even in Japanese fandom it has been soooo rare, so I just have to do it myself…

awkwardly though, I have to say that my depiction here is not that much accurate nor authentic either. I mean, the structures of her hair and clothes are probably overall alright, since I indeed did research on all those sorts of things, but the pattern are off the rails because I don’t have access to the authentic Japanese traditional cloth patterns (thought about hand drawing the pattern once but quickly gave up Lol),therefore the pattern on her clothes are mainly there to give a general “ancient East Asian Aesthetic” vibe.

But I do had putted my thoughts on this aspect and had fun while arranging the patterns on nyo Japan’s clothes! The patterns on her outer coat are made of three different kinds of plants: pine tree，bamboo and plum flower, which are called three friends of winters. As a art motif ,Originated from China,this combination also got popular in Japan and have gained new meaning there, which implied prosperity and propitious,thus being shown on clothing,especially on high fashion things a lot. So it’s just perfect to put them on nyo Japan’s coat. I think she looks very regal while wearing them, like a high court lady in those Japanese historical dramas.(The real authentic costumes are of course much much more stunning and beautiful!)

Oh and this painting actually is a redraw version, here is the older one:

I do think I made some progress during these years Lol, very glad that there is some progress.

[kacakacafall]

I finally finished them! Nyo America in 1920s-1950s fashion! More specifically, in suits, so those are the looks that I think she would have when being in workplaces.

I rarely draw full-body images, turns out the thing that would persuade me to draw more of them is historical costumes Lol, and the biggest thing that makes me want to draw this set is actually Nyo America's hair. Her curly hair just resembles soooooo much with those hairstyles between the 1920s and 1950s, which also goes along with historical costumes during those times so well.

and a bonus one:

another version of 1940s Nyo America, I originally thought the costumes would suit her very well, turns out that she looks either like a school girl wearing school uniform, or a teenager who tried to put on her mother's clothes Lol, which makes sense, since fashion during those time periods are generally designed for older women, so she is still a bit too young(at least physically) to wear them.

individual drawing and related rants below:

1920s style is very distinctive, it didn't suit her body type, but the young and energetic vibe definitely goes along well with her. I actually don't think Emily was a flapper during the 1920s, she resembled the independent part of a flapper, but I think she was too workaholic to spend much time having fun Lol 1920s America is such an interesting topic to explore, in terms of Hetalia fan art/fanfiction.

1930s, all I remember before is the great depression and Hollywood glamour stuff, but no one told me that women's suits were soooo handsome and dashing during that time period?? I feel like she walked from an old movie when drawing the clothes. It somewhat felt gloomy and serious, which I feel implied the atmosphere of the 1930s, since the great depression was there.

When I looked for references and general information about 1940s fashion, it is said that during that time period, clothes designs were added with a military uniform style touch, and I definitely felt that when drawing this. It feels like an interesting hybrid of 1930s and 1950s styles, not as distinctive and striking as those two, but still has its own elements and beautiful styles.

The 1950s, it is said that it was a time period when American design started to stand on its own, which may explain why I felt that she is so in her element in this look, even if she looks 10 years older than her actual physical age Lol, She looks very mature when wearing like this, but not in a forced way, which really resemble the American 1950s history, since she was becoming a user power at that time.

Overall, I really enjoyed drawing those, it is always super interesting to explore what would Hetalia characters wear during different time periods(with various hairstyles). I may never draw the exact canon design of Nyo America, but I really like the design of her relatively short and curly hair, which really resembles the fashion trends from the 1920s to the 1950s.

[kacakacafall]

More practice and character design, 1920s Nyo America this time! She looks so...I don't know how to put it... young and energetic in 1920s fashion?

without hat version below: