Card05 by Lionus (2005)

Peace on Earth? :=)

Wilber, my shy and somewhat retiring wolf is far the opposite in manner and behavior. He is perfectly happy to sit in the sunshine coming in on the window chair reading a book with a soft smile of pleasure on his lips.

Ah, but bring them both together ... well, on this Christmas morning there isn't to be any 'Peace on Earth' for Lionus as Dai and Wilber give a rousing rendering of "Joy to the World" on drum and fife. :-)

As usual, my idea for my annual Christmas card came late. I begin thinking about it in the time leading up to the American holiday of Thankgiving (November 25th). While everyone else is talking about and looking forward to the approaching Thanksgiving family feast I was trying to get into the Christmas mood and come up with some sort of Christmas "story" that was different from all the others I have drawn.

In the beginning the search is just some idle thinking now and again. But once the first week of December arrives I an seized by a growing panic. I've got to draw SOMETHING! Should it be yiffy? Traditional or sentimental? Humorous?

Mercifully an idea *did* finally arrive for this year and I started with a spontaneous sketch of Dai and his fife. After that, as usual, the story flowed easily. I did make one semi-major change about 3/4's of the way through. I had wanted to do my card as a tip of the hat to the wonderful "stories" painted by Norman Rockwell for the Saturday Evening Post's covers. Unfortunately I had to drop the idea of a faux "Lion Art" quarterly magazine cover since the title was a bit too visually distracting to the story I was telling. I gave it up for this picture but the idea of a faux magazine cover is still circling under my mane. :-D