My submission for @drizzledrawings cowbiansona contest.
I do have a ref sheet of her, but this drawing holds a special place in my heart. Especially since I’m a sucker for song inspired art. ‘People are strange’ by the doors is absolutely a banger in the context of the queer Wild West. She’s got a whole playlist that’s been carefully curated over the past two years.
Technically I’ve had Lydia since I first played rdr2 a little over 2 years ago, but she’s a cowboy and a lesbian, so I feel like it fits the criteria lmfao. Plus I’m obsessed with the cowbians, and have sort of integrated them as just- part of red dead lore at this point. So they get to all exist in the same universe officially now 🤝
A bit of her backstory:
A child born out of wedlock, she lives with her mother on a ranch just east of Colter. Her mother is a ‘ranch hand’ for the owner, who is really just a close family friend who had taken pity on her when she became pregnant. Lydia grows up helping around the ranch, trying to prove herself through grit and tenacity. Her quick tongue and ‘unruly’ behavior gets her in trouble often.
When she’s 17, a small up and coming gang makes its way through Colter, and their ranch. When a shootout ends up killing her mother and burning a large amount of the property, Lydia decides to flee with whatever she can pack onto her horse.
Spending most of her remaining youth traipsing from town to town, she travels all across New Hanover and West Elizabeth; searching for any kind of work. She quickly learns how to swindle and con unsuspecting folks for a living. Her favorite? Poker and black jack. Batting your eyelashes really does distract from a quick sleight of hand.
Growing a bit too comfortable in her new skills, she begins to set her eyes on bigger goals. Real robberies and thefts. Drowning in naivety and hubris, she gains a sizable bounty after a couple of messy train robberies. Now on the run for real, she has a run in with the Van Der Linde gang while they’re camping at horseshoe overlook.
She spends almost two years with the gang. During that time she meets a woman (Willow) and eventually splits off from the gang to settle down with her. The two of them purchasing a small cabin and plot of land in the north eastern grizzlies. They marry and live in that cabin raising sheep and goats until Lydia eventually dies of heart disease at the ripe old age of 81.
Her story has always been symbolically linked with a black coyote. Traditionally symbolizing cunning, adaptability, and shapeshifting. For sure that is her animal counterpart and I’m obsessed with the idea of literal shapeshifting rather than just narrative overtones.
Lydia is an Aries sun, Cancer moon, Gemini ascendant. Chaotic neutral.
Just as another little add on (because I’ve got a shit ton of art lmao) here’s a pic of Lydia and Willow. Willow is an Afro-Indigenous woman who was part of the Pawnee tribe (in the middle of Nebraska/where Valentine is based off of) before they were run off their land.
(Also based on the song ‘Lady May’ but specifically the Maggie Antone version.)
