Meet the Cowardly Lion--Oz pages 13 and 14

Hello lovelies! I have finished the Cowardly Lion as my next illustration. I feel his backstory isn’t quite as good as everyone else’s, so I figured he needed a spectacular illustration. But he does get some really interesting lines later like when they are entering the deadly poppy field where he says, "I always did like flowers," said the Lion. "They seem so helpless and frail. But there are none in the forest so bright as these."

I started by using some more of that splendid Eric Carle painted tissue paper to have a background in warm colours. I decided to sew the lion’s face out of felt. My original idea was to try to make him out of paper and  have two faces. If you pulled a tab he went from angry to sad, but I decided to try that effect later and make him out of felt since he is a furry animal. I think the felt was the right choice. He is three layers thick, but the effect is stunning. I am particularly proud of the tears which dangle from his eyes. I put them on embroidery floss and used fabric glue to glue the tears together to give it some movement. I was inspired to do this by the wonderful artist and director Julie Taymor on her award winning costume designs for the Lion King on stage. When all the lionesses are crying because Mufasa is dead, ribbons unfurl from their eyes.

For the story side, I started by painting the background a mixture of yellow and copper (the colours are much warmer and more vibrant in person...the photo makes them paler than in real life) and then added the pocket in a shade of sandy brown with an orange claw print. I was debating as to what to put in the corners as the Scarecrow had corn, the Tin Woodman had his dripping oilcan, but what could he have? I had planned to use another sheet of orange paper to print off more claw prints but the printer ate my last sheet of orange paper and so I only had a tiny strip of scrap to use. But then it hit me. I had once bought a little decorative hole-punch in the shape of a flower from a charity shop. I used my heart hole-punch often (see the Tin Woodman’s tears) but I had never used this one. Its ke-chunk mechanism (technical term) was more ke-chunk than my heart one and I promptly pinched my finger on it and made it bleed. How we suffer for our art! But after much swearing, I managed to get 4 orange flowers which I thought doubled nicely for pawprints.

Here they are side by side:

So what is his backstory?

"What makes you a coward?" asked Dorothy, looking at the great beast in wonder, for he was as big as a small horse.

"It's a mystery," replied the Lion. "I suppose I was born that way. All the other animals in the forest naturally expect me to be brave, for the Lion is everywhere thought to be the King of Beasts. I learned that if I roared very loudly every living thing was frightened and got out of my way. Whenever I've met a man I've been awfully scared; but I just roared at him, and he has always run away as fast as he could go. If the elephants and the tigers and the bears had ever tried to fight me, I should have run myself--I'm such a coward; but just as soon as they hear me roar they all try to get away from me, and of course I let them go."

"But that isn't right. The King of Beasts shouldn't be a coward," said the Scarecrow.

"I know it," returned the Lion, wiping a tear from his eye with the tip of his tail. "It is my great sorrow, and makes my life very unhappy. But whenever there is danger, my heart begins to beat fast."

"Perhaps you have heart disease," said the Tin Woodman.

"It may be," said the Lion.

"If you have," continued the Tin Woodman, "you ought to be glad, for it proves you have a heart. For my part, I have no heart; so I cannot have heart disease."

"Perhaps," said the Lion thoughtfully, "if I had no heart I should not be a coward."

"Have you brains?" asked the Scarecrow.

"I suppose so. I've never looked to see," replied the Lion.

"I am going to the Great Oz to ask him to give me some," remarked the Scarecrow, "for my head is stuffed with straw."

"And I am going to ask him to give me a heart," said the Woodman.

"And I am going to ask him to send Toto and me back to Kansas," added Dorothy.

"Do you think Oz could give me courage?" asked the Cowardly Lion.

"Just as easily as he could give me brains," said the Scarecrow.

"Or give me a heart," said the Tin Woodman.

"Or send me back to Kansas," said Dorothy.

"Then, if you don't mind, I'll go with you," said the Lion, "for my life is simply unbearable without a bit of courage."

"You will be very welcome," answered Dorothy, "for you will help to keep away the other wild beasts. It seems to me they must be more cowardly than you are if they allow you to scare them so easily."

"They really are," said the Lion, "but that doesn't make me any braver, and as long as I know myself to be a coward I shall be unhappy."

Stay tuned next for the terrible Kalidahs!