Joan of Arc character design - with notes

Dear Patrons,

 Long time no post! I have been working on a different project other than the webcomic for Lent this year, because somehow I have become a little closer to my faith. I don't know how it happened exactly. I have always been a devotee of Joan of Arc, so I have made some visual development stuff for her story. I am so excited to show you what else I have made. Right now it feels like this is the thing I should be working on, and people on Instagram have also shown great enthusiasm for my illustrations of saints. The path has cleared and I'm happy to be here!

For Joan of Arc I didn't want to change her iconic design much. She's one of those characters which are a nightmare to design because she is such an important symbol to many. We can't do much aside from changing her hairstyle and armor ornamentations. Besides, I really like how this Joan looks, a bit of a blank slate. I really thought of her as an empty vessel for God and lacking self-importance. You look at this design and it doesn't even scream anything it just gently asserts "This is me, I am plain, and I'm happy to be." In her story according to chroniclers and historians she possessed a strong will and a one-track mind, which draws people to her. In this character sheet I made sure to show one drawing of her looking upwards. The looking upwards pose is something I really like doing, and something I have been drawing long before I knew why. It's Palm Sunday in less than a week. This answers a lot of questions for me.

In my favorite book Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (which is also a landmark of French culture-- I swear guys I'm not a Francophile this is all coincidental), there's these lines that I really love and revisit from time to time:

"One is not unoccupied because one is absorbed. There is visible labor and invisible labor.

To contemplate is to labor, to think is to act.

Folded arms toil, clasped hands work. A gaze fixed on heaven is a work."

The English translation, personally, feels quite different from the French. The last line, "A gaze fixed on heaven is a work", is in its original French "Le regard au ciel est une oeuvre". Some have translated "oeuvre" in this context into "work of art" instead of just a synonym of labor or toil when we consider the context of the previous sentences. In the Philippines, owing to our Spanish colonial history, we sometimes refer to great artworks as "obra maestra", which is why without being too aware of it I recognized the semantic implications Victor Hugo wanted to bring forth. A gaze fixed on heaven really is a work of art. Joan of Arc is the perfect canvas for it.

Yours,

Myrthena (Athena Dela Victoria)