I'm mostly making this site for the 2024 historical OC art exchange. I'll have all my photos uploaded here for ease of access!
You can find me (and Paul) on Toyhouse here!
I consider him an OC because I've come up with his whole backstory, personality, relationships, and how he looked. This is what is called a composite character in the field of historical reenactment!
Paul is 36. He's french canadian, born and raised in Montreal to Catholic parents.
He travels by canoe to an outpost about six weeks away to work as the baker there every spring, then at the end of summer he comes back to Montreal. Through the winter and into the following spring he works for a bakery run by some cousins of his.
This mockup is like. 65% accurate. Different facial hair, more male pattern baldness, and thicker eyebrows. But it's a start. You can scroll down to the bottom to see some art of my own, which'll give you a much better idea I think.
In terms of body type, Paul is a bit of a bear. He's average height (about 5'10") and is very broad chested. He's fairly hairy on his chest and arms, which is often visible as his sleeves are rolled up and shirt unbuttoned due to the heat of the bakeries (which often climb above 40 degrees Celsius!).
Here's kind of how you'd expect to see him dressed. He sometimes wears a triangle apron as you can see on the older gentleman in the image. Like the two younger men, he typically goes for lighter coloured shirts. He does not wear a cravat while working, but he will wear a waistcoat, to which his apron is fastened. Pants are drop-crotch trousers (not breeches), in dark blue or brown.
Here's some art pulled off the web of bakeries of the time. This is the kind of space in which Paul would be operating - large, deep, brick ovens, with cast-iron doors and wooden peels (with handles about six feet long!) for taking bread out of the ovens. They're heated the same as pizza ovens - a fire is built directly inside the oven, and once it's burned down to coals they're shoveled out and the bread dough is added.
Paul is a realist. He likes his job, likes most of the people he works with, hates his sleeping conditions (they don't help his chronically sore back at all), and dedicates himself fully and completely to his work. He has a genuine passion for baking, and does it phenomenally well - enough to be hired year after year to work the outpost. He's been there for eighteen years and while he doesn't necessarily operate the bakery with an iron fist, he definitely is particular about assuring it runs smoothly. While he is respectful to the gentlemen for whom he works, he doesn't particularly care to interact with them, preferring other employees' company and discussion over the awkwardness of sucking up to the bourgeois.
He has a bit of an interesting relationship with the head cook at the fort, a younger man (about 28-30) named George Hans. George knows cooking as well as Paul knows baking (which is to say, very well), and they often collaborate to create dishes which are served to the gentlemen staying at the outpost. George has held his position for about seven years at this point so the two know each other quite well. Neither man, due to their jobs, is married, and the relationship between the two of them is at times very very homoerotic. They share the attic above the bakery and while there are often other servants with them, they have plenty of time alone. They have explored each other's bodies.
While their relationship is typically pretty good, they do occasionally get into spats. Typically it's Paul telling George off for not taking proper precautions and winding up injuring himself. Other times, it's because one of them screwed up on a dish and the other has to pick up the flack. All in all, though, they don't argue much because there really isn't much to argue about.
Paul is bilingual, but speaks almost exclusively in French unless he has to communicate to an English speaker. He laughs with his whole chest, speaks loudly, and enjoys singing and dancing with his friends and coworkers after the ovens have cooled for the day. He'll occasionally jump in on the fiddle, but typically leaves that to the more skilled musicians among them.
Big ovens means they go through a lot of wood. While logs are brought in by voyageurs and day labourers, Paul has to chop them to size himself. Over the years he has become incredibly skilled with an axe and can wield one with extreme precision. He spends a good amount of time doing this every day while waiting for his bread to rise.
Also I promise you the names are NOT a Beatles reference, these are honest to God real historical people the names are just a coincedence
Also Also. I am aware that the mockup looks like Markiplier. Shush. It's not on purpose.