I love toucans, and the Cornell Birdcams Panama site is a great spot for Keel-billed Toucans – the typical toucan if you like, and they move quite slowly and intentionally which makes them relatively easy to draw as I get plenty of time to acquaint myself with the shapes. The plumage is of course beautiful, and the blocks of primary colour are suited to my style of illustration – in fact they are one of the few birds where I can use paint directly from the tube. I used the Holbein gouache in turquoise blue, lemon yellow, brilliant orange, leaf green and violet mixed with a touch of burnt umber. Oh and lamp black.
I did some sketches in pencil first:
I did an array of toucans across two pages:
