As part of a special series called Re-illustrating The Jungle Book (April 2016), The Guardian invited 10 illustrators—including me—to visualise their favourite character or scene from the book.

This was my contribution to the series, depicting one of my favourite characters in the book—Mother Wolf, Raksha (the Demon), Mowgli’s first ally. Here, she stands against Shere Khan, ready to fight to the death, blazing with fierce, clear, and true power. I enjoy this directness about Raksha – it seemed only natural to paint her directly in ink with no guiding pencil lines, to echo the spontaneity of this scene.