jesslyra was asking for people to do some concept art for a werelion so I thought I'd pitch in.

My concept has the person transforming fully into the lion shape white still retaining most of their human characteristics first before finally sprouting fur and having their fingers, toes, ears etc. transform into those of a Lion.

I decided to go with this approach so as to differentiate between a were-animal and a regular Furry or Anthro character.

These sketches show the mid-point of the transformation. The body's basic posture and proportions have changed to that of the animal, but the skin, hair and details are still human.
When the transformation is complete, the were-animal is identical to a natural animal of that species.