"Draw the lion."

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"Draw the lion," @arrliinn commanded -- er, said -- during one time she mentioned the Learn To Draw With Friends contest by @tonyr (do check it out, guys!). She also submitted an entry, by the way. Check it out, too.

Learn To Draw With Friends follows through three categories depending on the artist's skill level (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). The contest is currently in its third week, with its theme being animals. Huh. When @arrliinn mentioned the contest to me, I don't think she knew that I...

I hate drawing animals. 

I began to hate drawing animals when I was in elementary school, and we were asked to draw and define the parts of an animal/insect in science class. Needless to say, I suck at doing it. How the heck would I remember the thorax of a grasshopper? (Blast elementary school science!)

Another thing I disliked about drawing animals was the fur (for mammals). And how I couldn't seem to get the proper proportion of their bodies. I mean, I already hated drawing human hair, what more with fur? 

Strangely, my dislike in drawing animals extends to disliking drawing Pokémon and Digimon. Even Hello Kitty. Hello. Kitty. Imagine!

I joined the contest anyway. Years after avoiding drawing animals like plague, I finally decided to face this irrational dislike in drawing animals. I wanted to prove to myself that I can and will draw animals for once. A lion, at that.

So I faced this dislike head on. The result? The one above. 

In the end, I realized that I still don't really like drawing animals. HAHAHAHAHAHUHUHUHU. It took me a really long while for me to be satisfied with the base sketch (I'm sorry, I wasn't able to document the drawing process 😐😞) and the whole fur/hair thing still really isn't my forte. ☹️ 

Surprisingly, I sincerely did. Doing this -- I drew like a kid. For the first time in a long while in drawing, I actually put extraextra attention to a drawing. I actually held the colored pencils like I truly mean to use them, not because I think they were the only available means for me to draw and color. I don't think that made sense, but in my head, it surely did.

It has a very boring title: The Lion. It is entitled as such, with emphasis on The, because I believe that it will be the only lion I would ever draw. LOL.

Drawn on a scratch paper (again) with my current best friends, the 3.3 mm core Faber-Castell colored pencils.