Fireside chat with Roman Papsuev

What the talk is about

Roman Papsuiev talks with Oleksandr Khrutskiy about how his personal hobby grew into the project "Tales of Old Rus", illustrations of Slavic folklore characters in a video-game style. He began drawing for himself in the evenings after work, then dug into folk tale and epic collections and found them far harsher than the adapted children's versions. After the images spread online, he gradually left his studio job and focused on the project. He explains why he leans on recognisable genre archetypes, finding folklore counterparts for them, and why he cares equally about heroes and villains. He is now working on a tale collection with a co-author and on tabletop games. Useful for artists and writers building their own world on mythology.