Sloth and Toucanet Illustrations

Illustrations

(L) Sloth, ink pen and watercolor. (R) Toucanet, oil on paper.

Illustrations of a sloth in watercolor, and a toucanet painted in oils, from photos taken at the zoo. The sloth was sketched in pencil then drawn with ink Micron pens and colored with watercolors. The toucanet was an amazingly cute little guy with a huge personality to match his beak. It was done on Moleskine sketchbook paper that was primed with several layers of Golden GAC-100 acrylic polymer and painted with quick-drying oils.

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Mexican Sunflowers and a Free Downloadable Botanical Illustration print

This summer we grew Mexican Sunflowers for the first time. I love their beautiful vibrant colors that are unlike any other flowers I’ve seen!

The colors are especially beautiful when light passes through the petals.

They have soft velvety stems that always look like they’re rimmed in light.

I was also excited to learn that the nectar of the Mexican sunflower is a favorite food of the Monarch butterfly.

We try to make our garden a haven for Monarchs by growing lots of milkweed for them to lay their eggs upon and butterfly bushes to provide nectar. The Mexican sunflowers are a great additional food source for the butterflies and tons of other pollinators.

The seed packet said they would grow to be around five feet tall but ours are over ten feet!

I read that Mexican sunflowers reseed easily so I’m hoping to have lots next summer. Maybe you’ll be inspired to grow them too if you have some extra space to create a nurturing environment for Monarch butterflies and other pollinators. If you already grow them, leave me a comment and let me know about your experience!

I tried to capture the gorgeous colors in watercolor in my sketchbook and decided to make the painting into a pdf that you can download and print. Print it on letter size card stock to use it as a greeting card or you can print it on good quality paper to display it in a frame. The size is 5 x 7” when the excess is trimmed away and folded.

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