So from working form my last idea this is what I came up with I think the top one works the best and I like the colours i've used. I tried expermenting with different colour combinations and different shades and tints to see if that would improve the design at all, I myself prefer the use of a single colour with different tints of that colour. I then tried messing about with the overall image, croping it, mirroring it I don't think these worked at all. You loose the completly what the image is, it no longer looks like a lion.

My next taught is that I think the whole thing looks a bit flat so I'd like to try and experiment with the image more by trying to incorporate maybe some texture into the little cricles or try to make the image look less 2D I'd like to add a little depth some how.