I've been working on a lion drawing for a long time now just experimenting with different styles and photoshop effects. However, with the recent killings of our Lions - MoHawk and Lemek from the Nairobi National Park and Cecil from Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe- I was inspired. What happened left me saddened and so deeply touched that I decided to come up with this artwork to try and show the beauty of these animals and why we should all care to take action and preserve them. A lot of things have been said about the incidences and everyone has their opinions on the actions that were taken, the national parkland etc; my focus here is not on any of that. What I want people to take away is how Lions have a place in our culture, they are a source of great pride, envy even to those around the world that we have the opportunity to visit them in their habitat with very little effort and ease. The fact that we have Lions in our game reserves is a huge blessing to our continent, one that has benefited each and every one of us positively whether directly or indirectly. The responsibility is on us to preserve their land, respect their space and honour them. We need to figure out how we can have a sustainable ecosystem for both humans and wildlife to live in harmony. If we don't then their blood will be on our hands....

These are the ingredients I used to make the final artworks.