Bad Lions in Every Medium!

Now, I'm not claiming I could crochet anything - let alone a 9 m lion - worth a damn.

Nevertheless, these lions are a bit ... bad, aren't they?

Shauna Richardson, Lionheart

The crochet work is absolutely beautiful, but they look like a bunch of teenagers whose mom just found pot in their sock drawer.

Gulp

It's Called Google, People

Dear contemporary lion artists:

Open browser. Type "lion" into search bar. Draw what you see.

Seriously, you have no excuse for this crap:

Pull it together, people.

Love,
BadLions

(Sorry it's blurry, but let's be fair: a clearer image wouldn't improve the situation at all).

Thanks for the submission, Will and Hannah!

Lions: Secretly Child's Play?

One excuse for the myriad of bad lions in art is that many of the (classical) painters had never seen a lion before. However, I think there's another reason so many lions are crap: the artists take advantage of the fact that no matter how bad a lion is, it is still recognizable.

Anyone who's played charades or draw something knows this. You can draw a dog and have people guessing "cow!" "goat!" "alligator!" endlessly, but lions have a handy mane that makes them instantly recognizable, no matter how many of the other features are completely fucked.

Case in point: I have witnessed a two year old easily recognize this as a lion:

Illustration from The Big Orange Splot, by Daniel Manus Pinkwater.

More importantly, first she recognized THIS as a lion:

So I guess what I'm saying is that lion artists are mostly both bad AND lazy.

A Face Even a Mother Wouldn't Love

Even the lion is disgusted by how bad he is.

Thanks for the submission, Joanne!