This is my submission for the 2011 Werewolf Calendar. This year I got April:

"As with humans, it is an important part of social life to perform ritual ceremonies for pinnacle events such as birth, pairing ceremonies, and death. In addition to these ceremonies werewolves will often perform 'rain' and 'hunt' rituals to call down strength upon themselves in times of drought and famine. These ceremonies are often noted for their unusually haunting 'wolf' songs. However, the vocalizations of werewolves are far more complex than that of a normal wolf, often carrying a recurring identifiable melody. Wolfsong is also accompanied by ritualistic body painting, dancing and in some parts of the world decorative scarring or piercing(usually as a rite of passage for adolescent werewolves entering adult werewolf society). It is not uncommon for werewolf families to gather in ceremonial rituals. This is an important event for most werewolves as it allows new pairings between young werewolves to occur within a neutral uncompetitive territory. Since most werewolves are territorial, outside of these group gatherings, werewolves will fight each other for prime territory and to establish dominance amongst males. The gatherings tend to take place on full moon nights, which despite popular belief is not the only time werewolves can shift. Rather this misconception is held because most sightings of werewolves have occurred during these full moon gatherings. It is not known how werewolves plan these gatherings or how far they will travel to make such a meeting."

Amazingly fun (and challenging!) to do, and the final outcome is -awesome-! I wish I had a tad more time to work on it as I see several things that need improving, but that's just me. All in all I think I did pretty good! I'm very proud of my fire since I had NO idea how to pull it off in acrylics, but I did it!! ^.^ Yay traditional painting! <3

Acrylic on 12" X 16" Illustration Board

©2010 Christy "Goldenwolf" Grandjean