Lion Down on the Ground


A Need For Gardens by Richard Brautigan

To tell you the truth, this particular Brautigan short story from Revenge of the Lawn still has me thinking "What the heck?" But in a good way, of course.

I don't mind tell you something about the story this time, since it can only prepare you a little, haha.

ALRIGHT. So, every year the characters in this story try to bury a lion. Why? I don't know. The Annual Lion Burial has been going on since the lion was itty-bitty. At first it scared and surprised him, but eventually he got used to it and just sat through the process looking rather bored.

What happens is every time they dig, the hole ends up being too small. So only a portion on the lion is covered. Then they give up until next year.

Yep!

About the illustration:
Well, this one was done with that Pentel V5 pen as well. But I also went over it with some Prismacolor pencils and some Copic markers. It's an overhead view of the partially-buried lion.

Update:
Ok, so I just googled "lion" and saw that they don't have big pink noses. Woops!

4 comments:

Denise Gallagher said...

Hey!

What's the use in being an artist if you can't take a few liberties? I like his pink nose... It suits the personality of a good-natured lion content to let people bury him year after year!

Denise

Burt said...

Haha, thank you for defending my lion-ignorance! My pride is salvaged.

Denise Gallagher said...

Haha! I can always count on you for a pun!

MamaLern said...

Hey now...you aren't the first. I believe the lions in The Lion King had pinkish/reddish noses, if I'm not mistaken. And that's Disney. Or God, if you want to use the formal name.