The Horse with the Pink Mane (Kon' s rozovoi grivoi)

Creator notes

ENG: Although it's a gingerbread horse (yes, a horse-shaped gingerbread), I decided to draw it as a horse skin. As for the horse with the pink mane itself, I decided to depict it in honor of the eponymous story by the late Soviet and Russian writer, Viktor Astafiev. The story "The Horse with the Pink Mane" is an autobiographical story written in 1968, which tells about Viktor Astafiev's childhood (Viktor Astafiev himself spent his childhood in the village of Ovsyanka, which is now located in the territory of the modern Krasnoyarsk region of Russia). This story tells about a gingerbread horse with a pink mane, which was the cherished dream of every village child. The main character, Vitya, goes into the taiga to pick strawberries at the request of his grandmother, so that she can take the berries to sell in the city and buy him the coveted gingerbread horse. Giving in to the persuasion of neighboring children who have no fathers (the Livnenkov children), he eats the berries and puts herbs in the basket, covering them with a handful of berries. At night, the boy is tormented by a terrible conscience. In the morning, the deception is revealed, the grandmother scolds Vitya, but still b