Drawn for a friend, whose favorite animal is a bear. 
(Fun enough, the photo I referenced really does show a big black bear chilling out like this on a couple rocks. 
)
The story with the sketch
Not sure how many of y’all are familiar with the Big Lots store chain, but back in the summer of 2024 it filed for bankruptcy. I had made friends of several of the employees at my local stores and was very saddened by the news. Earlier that year, I had begun on drawing a gift sketch for a couple of them (based on their favorite animal). Providentially, there ended up being at least a partial buyout of the chain and about 220 of the Big Lot stores across the US would not be closing down - my friends’ stores included!!!
(But in the hang-time of not knowing, the threat of the store closing by the end of that year definitely gave me a jarring deadline. 
)
In the end, I got the best of both worlds, gifting them their pictures in time for Christmas… while knowing for sure that it wasn’t goodbye! 
P.S. My friend was super surprised and liked it very much 