Three-Toed Sloth - Week Two

National Geographic

This week, I did a large bulk of my research, as well as some preliminary sketches to start to understand how to represent a sloth and all its adaptations. Sketching is a great way to practice drawing exactly what your eye is seeing. I've drawn sloths before, but not a ton, so these are great practice. These sketches will inform my final greatly, however I am still deciding on the exact composition of my final project. I want to choose the best possible way to showcase all that these amazing creatures can do.

This week, I learned that sloths have stomachs with multiple chambers, similar to those of a cow, that allow for them to ingest leaves from trees like the cecropia. These leaves are full of toxins, a way to protect the trees, but sloths have the proper tools to live off of these leaves. I also learned that they have extra vertebrae in their necks, allowing them to rotate their heads 270 degrees. As they move incredibly slow, this helps them protect themselves against predators. Sloths have so many interesting adaptations -- my challenge is creating an image that encapsulates all of them.

I also worked on a color study of one of my sketches to get a better sense of how I will go about painting my final piece. Color is a huge part of my art practice, and I always finds it helps me to decide on a visually interesting composition when I consider color early on in my planning.