sunday sundries ~

[lookingland]

i haven't painted Sid yet, but i couldn't resist throwing this together and giving it a digital tint just for the effect. i'm still working on his leather overcoat and the dog.

i like Sid. i try not to populate my world with too many characters that are just completely off the wall, but Sid was irresistible: affable, easy-going, single-minded, slightly crazy, and just plain fun. he's sensitive enough that you can hurt his feelings with a sharp word, but his short-term memory means he'll forget you insulted him before the day's out. unfortunately it also means he might not remember who you are when you serve him breakfast the next morning.

everywhere Sid goes, cities burn down and maybe he sees angels sometimes. he has been a child arsonist, a soldier (u.s. army sergeant), an oddjobsman, and a sheriff, but his principal adult occupation is a fireman and watchdog against the asian sex slave trade in san francisco. he marries late in life, to a notorious retired japanese vigilante woman with no tongue named Barabas (really, i'm not kidding).

perhaps my favorite thing about Sid is that he is mercifully free of his own past. no horror he has ever suffered (and he has suffered many) can ever touch him.



p.s. Sid lives in frisco for most of his adult life, but the design of his uniform is taken from a new york style i found in this excellent resource.

Comments

[pithhelmet.livejournal.com]

The paper doll is outstanding. Sid sounds quite interesting. I eagerly await reading more of him.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

thank you ~ ! i had tons of fun making him. i started out intending to make his military uniform, but the whole fireman thing trumped it.

: D

[lanyn.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Can you explain the button-on-both-sides-thingy that shirts and jackets used to have back then on the chest? Does it come off all the way if you unbutton it and then you have a flap of material with button holes? Or is it attached to the clothes? In what time period did that style get used? It's always rather fascinated me, and I think it's ravishingly good-looking on men in period movies, I've just never had anyone to ask what-for about the thingy. And never really knew what to google... so... hah! 'Splain, Lucy! :-D

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

ha ~ !

thank you! and what a great question!

it's a "bib", believe it or not. you can see an actual picture of a fireman's shirt from the civil war here (http://www.myrtle-avenue.com/firezou/shirt.jpg). the one i drew here is a jacket, not just a shirt, but the bib part is pretty much the same ~ it's a panel that buttons over the front.

the point of having it was to put a shield over the front of the shirt for added protection against, flaming debris and water pouring down onto your skin. It was also usually wool or heavy flannel, so it helped keep the chest warm and dry. This is also why the style was adopted by cowboys: because they had to sit in the rain and wind and snow and watch cows and whatnot.

for firemen, you wore a full-length heavy leather duster with a high collar over this when you went into action. the shape of the hat was designed to guard the back of the neck and to channel water off the face and shoulders.

so far as i know, it was the style since at least the 1840s. once they started developing better flame-retardant garments, it became merely customary and is now pretty obsolete.

i agree ~ they're pretty hot. hahahahaha ~

: D

[lanyn.livejournal.com]

Thank you much! That explains exactly what I wanted to know!

[sparowe]

I like. :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

thankie!

: D

[babalueye.livejournal.com]

Frisco? Come on, dude....just say it.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

this from the person who owns marsupials and a naked cat monster.

dude, you're on crack.

[utter-scoundrel.livejournal.com]

"he marries late in life, to a notorious retired japanese vigilante woman with no tongue named Barabas"

Freaky. I want to know more...

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i was looking for a picture of Barabas that i drew forever ago, but can't seem to find it. guess i'll have to draw another one ~ hahahaha.

i'm not sure whether to be proud or horrified that i was writing a samurai-western once, back in the 90s.

: D