Historically Accurate Gaston

Being the history geek that I am, I guess it is kind of surprising that I haven't really done a "historically accurate" animation series before, but after seeing that awesome Buzzfeed Disney Princess video, and of course all the amazing art on here, I was inspired to make my own.  I guess it is better late than never!

As I've said before elsewhere, from an artistic standpoint, I'm not at all bothered by the animated designs of the characters in Disney and Dreamworks films. They weren't documentaries after all so in most cases they didn't need to be accurate, and in animation in particular, it is more important to convey character and style in the designs.  I am not trying to "fix" anything because I don't think there is anything to fix!  That being said, it can still be fun to learn how your favorite characters might have looked if they had existed in real life.    

For my series, I am trying to be as accurate as I possibly can.  I'm taking the country of origin, the social class, the culture, and the specific decade into mind (instead of just a general sweep of multiple decades), and also adapting the colors and styles to fit what was available and worn everyday.  I will try to keep the characters recognizable where I can, but I want to make my pictures realistic and so some elements of the original designs might be altered in the process.
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While I don’t plan on drawing the Beast/Prince Adam, I couldn’t leave Belle alone in the series, so today we have another villain, because *no one’s as historically accurate as Gaston!*  Well, he’s actually not that accurate, but it wasn’t too hard to redesign his looks.

Since Gaston is known for his hunting abilities, I chose to dress him in clothing that would actually be appropriate for his favorite hobby.  Most depictions of hunting from  18^th century Europe show nobility doing formal hunting in fancy clothing, not the kind a country man like Gaston would do, so I started by looking at depictions from America to get a better feel for what a how a rustic hunter would dress.

First of all, Gaston likely would not go hunting in just his regular day clothing.  He would wear a hunting frock on top to protect his good clothes from getting damaged by thorns and branches in the woods, since clothing would be very valuable, especially for a bachelor who didn’t have a little wife to sew for him. You see a lot of hunting frocks on French settlers in the U.S., and they were probably brought over from France proper where there are many images of working class men wearing similar frocks in various occupations.   I made Gaston’s red like his shirt in the movie, based on this image from a historical costuming website.  Underneath the frock he would wear regular clothes, like a linen shirt, maybe a waistcoat, and sturdy knee breeches (which is how he would have dressed in the tavern during his song).  He most certainly would NOT have worn boots, that is just a modern design choice to make historical characters look more masculine.  As I’ve said in other pictures, for most of history boots were only worn for riding, as they were heavy and unwieldy.  Instead, Gaston would wear leather shoes while hunting because they are much quieter and easier to walk in.  To protect his shoes, stockings, and legs, he would wear gaiters or “spatterdashes” made of thick material that buttons up the side and belts below the knee.  Finally, I added a few accessories that were left out of the movie but which every self-respecting man would wear – a yellow neck kerchief and a felt hat with a jaunty upturned brim, because I don’t think Gaston would wear just any boring hat!  

I also drew some supplies Gaston would need if he were really going hunting.  Because I imagine Gaston is fairly wealthy for a working class man, I drew him with a leather bag and engraved powder horn.   In the movie he was drawn using a blunderbuss to hunt, which was solely a military gun, so I gave him a flintlock rifle (the French fusil de chasse) which is the correct kind of gun for large game.   According to this website a serious hunter who hunted for several days might also carry a knife and a hatchet tucked into the back of his belt.  One thing he would NOT have, though, is a bow and arrow.  That was way outdated as a weapon by Gaston’s time, so I’m assuming Disney though Gaston tracking the Beast with a gun might be too frightening or violent.

I feel like everyday clothing is overlooked too much in historical series, so even though Gaston is a total jerk I had fun working on his outfit for this picture.  The next entry will be the last one on my Historic Disney to-do list, a different look at the 18th century gent with Tangled's own Flynn Rider!