Black and grey realistic drawing of a lion head whose mane dissolves into bare tree branches and a faint moon, on a grungy parchment background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Lion head merging into a tree on textured paper

Realism · Black and grey · Flash

A realistic black and grey drawing of a lion head in profile, looking up and to the left, with a detailed mane. The mane fades into the branches of a bare tree and a pale moon above, with fine swirling linework around the lower edge. The shading is soft and tonal, set against a mottled, aged paper texture.

Realism Lion Mane Tree Branches Moon Swirl

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ruth,

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The lion came down from the wall on Tuesday, and I have been trying all week to tell you how it looked when Mr Abbott's men lifted it. Not stone, as we all believed. Something lighter, grey as old parchment, with a tree grown straight out of its mane. Bare branches, fine as hair, and a pale moon caught in the top of them like a coin in a drain.

Nobody at Hollins Park could say who carved it or when. Mrs Pryor remembered her grandmother saying the lion looked up at the moon every night and that the moon looked back. I laughed at that. Then I found the lichen along its brow had been scraped away in one clean line, the way a thumb wipes condensation from a window, and the line ran straight up towards the branches.

We set it on the lawn beside the glasshouse. By the Thursday, three seedlings had come up through the gravel around its base, each one leaning towards the sky the lion faced. I have not told Mr Abbott. He would only want to sell them, and I think they belong to the lion now, the same as the moon does.

Write back soon. Tell me if the pear in your yard has blossomed yet, and whether you still sleep with the window open.

Love, Tom