I wanted to do one of the big cats in a pose that isn’t typical. Me being me, I also had in mind that I wanted the piece to tell a bit of a story.

The sleeping lion was delightfully not typical. Studying him a bit, I realized that he seemed unconcerned that he was sleeping on his own. Then again…lion. Duh. But, I reasoned, what if he had a protector guarding him from one of the few animals that even lions don’t toy with (much) — elephants? Enter the sleeping mouse. Now the story was set. These unlikely companions have joined up so that neither has to fear an elephant disturbing their sleep.

Here’s a little bit of the scratch detail.