Sloth Resting in a Canopy Full of Birds
A sloth curls on a branch in a dense leaf canopy while five small birds perch in the foliage around it.
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Leaves cover nearly this whole page, hundreds of them, layered in overlapping fans from every edge toward the middle, and the sloth sits curled on a bare branch in the small clearing they leave behind. It is drawn smaller than in the other sheets in this group, which changes the character of the picture completely. The animal becomes one detail in a forest rather than the subject filling the frame. Five little birds perch around it: two on a twig at the left, one on a stem at the right and two more higher up, each with a rounded body, a short beak and a long tail. Finding them all is half the fun. The leaves themselves are drawn with clear ribs and the same pointed shape repeated at different sizes and angles, so they take a layered treatment beautifully. Start with the palest green at the outer edges and work darker toward the middle, and the canopy will gain real depth. Leave the birds and the sloth until last so they stay the brightest things on the sheet.
