This piece is based on "Lion Attacking a Horse", an oil painting by Theodore Gericault from 1820. I recreated the background with more detail, as Gericault's painting was really just a loose sketch. In keeping with his Romanticism I tried to make the forest fantastical and overwrought.
The lion is based on photos of an old toy I found for sale on eBay, and the horse is based (quite closely) on an illustration from the summer 1950 issue of "Frontier Stories”, by an artist named Allen Anderson.
For information about prints of this image, click HERE