Remember the blessed triangle of creativity: "Fast; Good; Cheap. Pick Two." Free is going to mean not good but fast in this case.

I'd recommend finding a pic of a lion that looks good (is in the correct position) and trace it in illustrator yourself. I find most clip art to be objectionable at best, downright cheesey and unusable at worst.

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natobasso

That is EXACTLY what I do. I never rely on cheesy clip art, mostly because it's, well...cheesy! But this way, I know if I find a decent enough photo (even at 72 dpi) in Google images, for instance, I know I can place that photo into Illustrator and trace it myself with the pen tool—then I take the smooth tool and smooth up the edges (and maybe add or remove some anchor points). Then once I'm finished doing that, I just add some flair of my own. It always turns out great and technically, it's MY design.

Try that, I bet you'll be much happier with the end result.

Suzanne Maestri-Walters :: Graphic Designer

They offer illustrations usually at 5 credits (which is $5). Generally the illustrations are pretty decent. Then of course, there's the method proposed above, DIY.

http://www.istockphoto.com

Jen
Pop Stalin Design
http://www.popstalin.com

Sometimes when I'm stuck for an image I can adapt, I use Getty Images http://creative.gettyimages.com . They have a range of stuff that includes freebies ("royalty-free"). I did a quick search under Creative/Illustrations/Lion and among the images that came back were one or two that I thought might interest you. Give it a shot.

Mara