Years ago, Aaron Blaise was a supervising animator on Disney's The Lion King. So when he heard the news of Cecil the Lion's death, he, like so many, was heartbroken. To pay tribute, Blaise painted Cecil appearing in a cloud formation as lions watch from the plains below. "As you may be able to tell I am a HUGE animal lover and it drives me crazy when I see these beautiful creatures destroyed for no good reason," he says.

On July 1, Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer hunted and killed Cecil, though he says he wasn't aware of who the lion was—at age 13, a popular tourist attraction at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park and an Oxford University study participant. The social media firestorm has inspired a Beanie Baby of Cecil the Lion and a $1 million projection onto the Empire State Building, showing Cecil among endangered animals.

Watch the time-lapse video of Aaron Blaise's Cecil the Lion tribute below.