Fliberty: Thanks. I would have liked to see your lion too 
StompinTom: Thank you. Some of the artificial branches on the right are picking up the red lights from the lion’s eyes.
Claws: I appreciate that. Materials can make or break a scene, so I’m glad I seemed to have found a good balance in this and not mess it up by over-tweaking it.
3dak: That might be some matchup I think Aslan would do very well.
Sonix: Thank you so much, my friend.
Sago: Thanks, Sago. The face is where it all begins and ends in this one, as it often works out with characters, so I’m glad the stylistic choices here worked out. I was able to save much time on this due to the mane’s placement, which hides the fact there is no body, only legs, head, and tail.
jackj: Thanks, jackj. Just hang in there and your skills will increase before you know it. I still have much to learn and improve upon myself.
dodgydavec: Thanks!
Roger: Thanks so much. I’m glad I stopped when I did and didn’t let the desire to tweak and re-tweak diminish this piece. I may post a wire at my website when I get a chance. Right now I’m working on a bunch of other things.
traitor: Thanks! I scaled down the leg density because, while they initially gave a stronger impression of strength, they also worked against the sense of speed. So I tried to strike a balance between a thinner leg that was still strong looking, especially when taking into consideration artificial materials which could be many times stronger than a real lion’s leg.
Roffey: No discombobulation, just good old fashioned extrusion in various areas along the branches.
UglyMike: Thanks! You’re right about the front and back legs looking similar. They are from the same base mesh. One of the reasons this came together so fast is only one leg was modeled. The others were mirrored and modified from there.
misfit: Thanks! That would be great if there was a poster shop option for us. Maybe it could be a good fund raising mechanism for the Blender Foundation too.
Clean3D: Thank you. Halos are very tricky to get right. I often stack them up and play with the line count and seed values. I also, as I did here, place low distance lights right in front of them according to the same color as the halos so the model and the environment experience some color bleeding and reflection.
Milky: Thank you. I still think the next splash should honor the work of Project Orange.
DracoFodder: I may post a larger render at some point at my website. The materials are fairly basic. Blinn, reflecting with some Fresnel, and several lights, some no diffuse, to generate interesting variations in the illumination.
BgDM: Thank you very much, BgDM. Shaders got a lot of help from the lighting. A simple color scheme really helped too. I’m glad I didn’t go back and dwell on materials any longer because it probably would have gotten worse instead of better for this project. Sometimes that happens and that can be a pain. I’m trying more and more to get things mostly right earlier in a project rather than wait until later. Tweaks are almost always inevitable though. For the halos I was going for more of a subtle glint effect in the eyes. Always tricky to find a balance with them!
RobertT
(Now this is something for the splash screen contest :D)