Draw This Again

Look at the Stars (Disney's The Lion King)
Medium: digital painting

"You Can Be King Again" by Lauren Aquilina (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk1vwYga02Q)

Lion King Horses: Nuka

Lion King Horses: Nuka
Medium: digital painting

I had a request to draw Nuka from Lion King II: Simba's Pride as a horse, so here he is!

Star Wars meets The Lion King

Pride Wars
Medium: digital painting

Star Wars: The Force Awakens characters in Lion King style! Kylo, why you gotta be such a grump? He's like that teenager on the High School playground who can't decide if he likes the girl, so he just bullies her.

Jasiri Wolf

North American Guard: Jasiri
Medium: digital painting

Here is Jasiri from The Lion Guard as a wolf for my idea of what if the Lion Guard was in North America. Is it just me or does she look like she could be from that movie Alpha and Omega?

North American Guard
Janja, Cheezi, and Chungu
Makucha

North American Wildlife: Janja, Cheezi, Chungu

North American Guard (Lion Guard): Janja, Cheezi, and Chungu

Medium: digital painting

North America Guard: http://kristengracehall.blogspot.com/2016/06/north-american-wildlife.html

Here is Janja and his clan of hyenas as wolves! I know hyenas are not canines, but I figured wolves have a similar reputation in North America, and they're pack hunters, a bit similar to hyenas. Don't get me wrong: I love both wolves and hyenas!

Kiara Horse

Lion King Horses: Kiara
Medium: digital painting

The Lion King has to be one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. I don't care if it's aimed at kids; I love it!

I wanted to experiment with a species...crossover?...and see what the Lion King characters look like as horses! I've seen TLK deer and wolves around, but I haven't come across horses, although there probably are some somewhere. So here is Simba and Nala's daughter Kiara (from TLK 2: Simba's Pride) as a horse! I used the Simba's Pride design, not the Lion Guard design. The Lion Guard design is nice, but I'm not sure why they changed her.

Kovu Horse

Lion King Horses: Kovu
Medium: digital painting

The Lion King has to be one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. I don't care if it's aimed at kids; I love it!

I wanted to experiment with a species...crossover?...and see what the Lion King characters look like as horses! I've seen TLK deer and wolves around, but I haven't come across horses, although there probably are some somewhere. So here is Kovu (from TLK 2: Simba's Pride) as a horse!

Mufasa Horse

Lion King Horses: Mufasa
Medium: digital painting

The Lion King has to be one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. I don't care if it's aimed at kids; I love it!

I wanted to experiment with a species...crossover?...and see what the Lion King characters look like as horses! I've seen TLK deer and wolves around, but I haven't come across horses, although there probably are some somewhere. So here is King Mufasa as a horse! He's so big and fluffy. Mufasa, Mufasa, Mufasa!

Scar Horse

Lion King Horses: Scar

Medium: digital painting

The Lion King has to be one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. I don't care if it's aimed at kids; I love it!

I wanted to experiment with a species...crossover?...and see what the Lion King characters look like as horses! I've seen TLK deer and wolves around, but I haven't come across horses, although there probably are some somewhere. So here is everybody's favorite villain Scar as a horse!

Kion Horse

Lion King Horses: Kion
Medium: digital painting

The Lion King has to be one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. I don't care if it's aimed at kids; I love it! Okay, yes, Kion is from Lion Guard, not Lion King, but same difference. It's the same universe.

I wanted to experiment with a species...crossover?...and see what the Lion King characters look like as horses! I've seen TLK deer and wolves around, but I haven't come across horses, although there probably are some somewhere. So here is Kion (Simba and Nala’s son) as a horse! He’s a colt here, but not a very, very young colt.

I guess since he's a horse, then he'd have the ...Neigh of the Elders.  ...  You know, somehow it's not as dramatic.

Nala Horse

Lion King Horses: Nala

Medium: digital painting

The Lion King has to be one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. I don't care if it's aimed at kids; I love it!

I wanted to experiment with a species...crossover?...and see what the Lion King characters look like as horses! I've seen TLK deer and wolves around, but I haven't come across horses, although there probably are some somewhere. So here is Nala as a horse! I molded her after the original Nala design.

Simba Horse

Lion King Horses: Simba

Medium: digital painting

The Lion King has to be one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. I don't care if it's aimed at kids; I love it!

I wanted to experiment with a species...crossover?...and see what the Lion King characters look like as horses! I've seen TLK deer and wolves around, but I haven't come across horses, although there probably are some somewhere. So here is Simba as a horse! I molded him after the original Simba design. 

The Hobbit Meets The Lion King

Rises and Falls Like the Sun
Medium: digital painting

"A king's time as ruler rises as falls like the sun." -Mufasa

The Lion King meets The Hobbit! I dug up this drawing that I started a little before the "Desolation of Smaug" came out. The shading was awful, so I decided to chuck all the shading and start over with just the lines. The linework is from a few years ago so it's not up to par with my more recent art, but I still wanted to finish it! From left to right: Tauriel, Thranduil, and Legolas. Yeah, I know Tauriel's not an actual Tolkien character and that Legolas wasn't in the book, but I still wanted to draw them. I draw what I want. ;D

The Lion Guard

You're a Lot Like Me
Medium: digital painting

Wait, Simba has a son? Yes. Yes, he does.

In Disney Junior's new hit show The Lion Guard, King Simba's second cub Kion is the leader of the Lion Guard, the "team that protects the Pridelands and defends the Circle of Life." Kion and his friends Bunga the honeybadger (the bravest), Fuli the cheetah (the fastest), Beshte the hippo (the strongest), and Ono the egret (the keenest of sight) have many adventures solving problems and fighting off villains such as Janja the hyena and his clan. Kion has the power of the Roar, which means that when he roars, all the past great lions of the Pridelands roar with him.

Lion Guard isn't exactly like The Lion King, so anyone going into it expecting Lion King all over again will be disappointed. It's a television show, so the animation and music aren't as polished as the movies, although they're still quite nice, especially the animation and character designs. It's also aimed at very young kids, so you have to think of it as such. All in all it's a cute show!

Just like in Lion King, the hyenas are the villains. While little kids might not pick up on this, many people don't like that Disney type-cast an entire species as "evil." Yes, they're all just animals and it's a cartoon, but replace the word "hyena" with any race or demographic of people and suddenly you would never let your kids watch The Lion King. After Lion King's release in 1994, a lot of hyena-lovers and wildlife biologists were actually quite upset with Disney for such a negative portrayal of hyenas, but some people have asked if it's a good thing to subtly teach kids that it's okay to judge others on account of something superficial like what they look like. Did Disney mean to do this? I don't know, but you can't deny that it's a little strange how the animals are grouped by species, not individual behavior and actions. Scar was the only exception: a bad character from the "hero species."

Disney appears to want to fix this problem in one of their Lion Guard episodes, however, by introducing a new character: a good hyena named Jasiri. Kion is initially distrustful of Jasiri, but she eventually wins his trust (with a song, so Disney!) and explains to him that hyenas have a purpose in nature and shouldn't be regarded as useless vermin. (Spotted hyenas generally aren't scavengers in real life, but I'm not sure if the hyenas in the Lion King universe are supposed to be spotted hyenas in particular or just a general hyena of sorts.) Jasiri also doesn't demand that Kion compromise his ideals, which is actually quite different from the typical "acceptance" idea pushed in modern culture. Instead of asking him to accept an ideology that's contrary to his own, she says that they "both know a higher call." She and Kion acknowledge their differences; they don't try to hide them or pretend that they don't exist. She tells him not to judge others easily, like judgments based on appearance, first impressions, or preconceptions. I personally think Disney made a very good move with Jasiri. Kids can learn a valuable lesson from her, about both people and hyenas. Lion Guard fans are waiting to see if she'll make a return later on in the series!

"Sisi ni Sawa" song sung by Kion and Jasiri
More about Jasiri

More about Lion Guard (music)
More about Lion Guard (characters)

Happy 20th Anniversary, Lion King!

Lion King 20th Anniversary
Medium: Photoshop paint

2014 marks the 20th Anniversary of Disney's The Lion King, which was released in 1994.

The Elvenking

King Thranduil
Medium: Photoshop paint

Every time you leave your campfire burning and it sets a forest on fire, an elf cries. Think of the elves! Protect our forest friends. Only you can prevent wildfires.

Sorry about that. Smokey the Bear popped into my mind when I finally finished this.




The Lord of the Rings and all its relations has always been my favorite story, and I've just realized that I've done precious little Tolkien-related art. I think it may be because I'm afraid I won't do the story or the characters justice. But then I thought, "Peter Jackson changed Thranduil enough. What does it matter if I accidentally change him some more?"

This is J. R. R. Tolkien's character Thranduil, the king of the Mirkwood elves. While the book will always hold a special place in my heart, I do like all three of the movies Jackson has put out. I like almost everything that he added into the story and I like how he brought Legolas into The Hobbit, even though he didn't play a part in the book. I'm sorry if die-hard Tolkien fans are about to become physically ill for hearing such blasphemy, but I like those movies. I also like Tauriel's presence as well. I'm not a huge fan of the romance between her and Kili (that smacked of a decision they made while that one guy was in the bathroom, and was so obviously thrown in just to feed the Kili fangirls), but I did like her presence. Let's be honest, if she hadn't been in it, there would have been no females in that entire movie except for the little girl in Bard's house who screamed at the orc. It kind of needed at least one female.

And then there's Thranduil. Jackson completely changed him, and I thought for sure I wouldn't like it, but I did. (Just so we’re all on the same page: I like Thranduil’s character, but I’m not a Thranduil fangirl.) I like both Tolkien and Jackson's versions. In this picture I tried to combine the two. I wanted to show the softer, "less wise" Thranduil of the book, and the hard-core, emotionally scarred Thranduil of the movie.


I mean, come on! He's an elf, which is awesome, and he's a king, which is awesome, so he's awesome + awesome, and… and…

What does that even equal?

"King Thranduil" detail
Medium: Photoshop paint

A close-up of the eyes, because eyes are fascinating and fun to paint. I painted them in a moving car. I should be proud of myself.