The remake of The Lion King had released a portrait of Beyonce for the promotional poster which done by Cambodian artist – Bennie (Norak Bandidh) had received high praise by the global superstar’s mother.

“Your work is beautiful, Bennie,” wrote by Tina Knowles-Lawson, the 65-year-old American businesswoman and fashion designer, on her official Instagram account, @mstinalawson.

Unexpectedly with joy, the 25 years old artist receive merits from Beyonce’s mother after the portrait and video of him working on it was posted on Instagram earlier this month. Subsequently, three of Beyonce’s personal makeup artists also got in touch with him and among them, Rokael Lizama, promised to repost the video to share out and possibility to work together for future projects.

The self-taught artist is delighted that his work was being recognized by the superstar’s personal makeup artists, a fashion stylist and her own mother. On his Instagram account, @bennie_bd, he had about 12,000 followers. His post including celebrity portraits, which are created digitally or on paper and canvas.

Bennie was born in a creative family. His mother, Ngin Maniya, is a well-known novelist and songwriter, while his sister is a model and brother is an actor. He graduated from Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC) majoring in business and dedicated his spare time learning traditional and digital art since childhood via online tutorials. 

Averagely more detailed portraits will take him three to four days to complete and digital art piece will spend between seven to 10 hours.

He is planning to exhibit his work in near future and have in mind to setup art classes. Having created a stir with his portraits of international superstars, Bennie reveals that he plans to get busy drawing local celebrities.