守
Symbols Protection
watchman
ㄕㄡˇ shǒu
Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.
Script
Characters
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
The one awake while everyone else sleeps. Chinese names the act of guarding readily and the job title less so.
Before you commit
Choose with care守 says guarding, but not night and not a person. Read alone it is as likely to mean keeping a rule as keeping watch.
At small sizesSix strokes, a roof over a hand. Holds together at any size and suits small or curved placements.
Cultural noteBefore clocks, a 更夫 walked the streets striking a bamboo clapper to mark each of the five night watches. That round is 打更.
Meaning
To guard, to keep watch, to hold a post.
The character on duty in nearly every Chinese word for guarding.
Other characters for “watchman”
What to do next
Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.
Related concepts