Sloth Swimming Through a Rainforest River

Sloths really are strong swimmers, and this sheet is built around that surprise. The animal floats on its back in open water with its arms out to the sides and its face tipped up, a calm expression on it, drawn in short fur strokes that run along the length of the body. Behind and around it the river surface is marked by wide concentric rings that spread out to fill most of the lower half of the page. Those rings are the best feature here. Work through the rings one at a time, dropping the blue a shade weaker on each pass outward, and the water gains real depth for hardly any effort. Reeds and tall grasses grow along both banks in narrow blades, with a couple of seed heads among them, and a rock shelf sits at the upper left. There is a lot of white left between the ripples and the banks, so this one prints light and works well in a chunky medium. It is the most unusual composition in the sloth group and the easiest to explain to a child.