Deer Santa

	Deer Santa

	\| Originally released 7 January 2025
	v

	[...]

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	Disclaimer: I am not a Christian, and I do not observe Christmas
	to any extent further than a commercial festivity.

	This started from me hearing a Japanese Christmas song
	"Awatenbou no Santa Claus" (lit. "Hasty Santa Claus")
	the second time, from an old-technology Internet documentary show
	featuring old Yamaha ING'S karaoke machines.

	It has been the first time I actually tried to find out
	what the lyrics actually meant. From what I gathered,
	this song is a relatively-recent kids' Christmas song from 1967,
	composed by Asei Kobayashi, with lyrics by Osamu Yoshioka;
	depicting Santa in a rather unflattering down-to-earth fashion:
	a bloke who has to be in constant hurry because he is
	behind his schedule from shirking off to dance with kids,
	and being a bit of klutz. Loads of onomatopoeia in there...

	A Vocaloid version I first heard this song from (at 00:02:19)
	A version on Yamaha ING'S HK-10 karaoke machine
	A 1984 version with vocal by Saeko Shuu
	An animated version
	A simple duet version with English translation in description

	Reading through the Santa's misadventures in the lyrics
	made me wonder: what if the Santa himself wasn't magical,
	but rather his companion was? Also, what if the Santa himself
	was a total newbie, and it was up to his colleague
	to lead him the way and show him the ropes? This scene was already
	playing in my head at the time I was asking myself that;
	so, why not make it happen then?

	It turned out to be a really difficult scene to do
	a proper composition on. I actually had to scrap a prior
	one-third-finished version drawn in my new art style,
	because the original perspective I chose was
	not looking powerful enough; and my newer style
	took forever to draw- sticking to it might mean
	releasing this drawing on Christmas 2025 instead.

	This marks the first time I actually finished a drawing
	with cervitaur, and also the first time I posted an artwork
	which I deem "finished" by a predetermined deadline
	rather than by reaching a state of unimprovability.
	Both characters were last seen together in
	[2023-04-22] Walking into the Sunshine
	though it was way back in
	[2016-06-03] Knotted Mess
	that the character in the front was last seen in any
	demi-human form.

	Happy belated new year everyone.

	Copyright (C) 2025 xwindows
	This is a free illustration, you can modify and/or redistribute it

	GNU General Public License
	or...
	Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0 Unported
	or...
	Free Art License 1.3

	P.S. While this was drawn for 16:9 aspect ratio, some effort
	has been expended to make this not look completely terrible
	under 4:3. If you need the 4:3 version, crop for the leftmost part
	of this drawing.

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	Downloads:

	Deer Santa (PNG)
	^ 1920x1080 pixels; 415 KiB
	Deer Santa (SVG Original)
	^ Scalable, nominally 1280x720 pixels; 253 KiB

	More from Eventful Scenes:

	[2023-04-22] Walking into the Sunshine
	[2022-06-25] Shaky Cameraboy
	[2022-06-19] Departure From the Gallery
	Eventful Scenes

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	xwindows' Art Gallery