Nandan Nair

The Toucan: South America’s Iconic Bird

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It stared at the caterpillar resting on the leaf. It seemed to sense it’s every movement, the caterpillar, changes his position with every flinch of it’s beak, fighting back the urge to lash out at the insect. When suddenly, the toucan struck. It caught the caterpillar in it’s mouth and flew away, content with it’s catch.

My latest painting features one of South America’s most iconic and well-known birds, the Toco Toucan. It shows the toucan in the spotlight, at the center of the painting, on top of a large branch, surrounded by it’s natural habitat, consisting of many tropical leaves and twigs. When I began, I first laid out the basic colors of the whole painting in a light undercoat to know what to add on the second layer. Then, when that dried, I focused on the background. I wanted to give it the feel that it is very detailed with all the different colors, but at the same time make it seem so simple, that a 10-year old could do it!

Afterwards, I focused on the details of the toucan itself: the jet black body, it’s wings, and, most notably, the widely recognizable, colorful beak. Everything had to be absolutely spot-on to bring out the realism and majesty of this bird. For the toucan’s body and wings, I used a shade of jet black to cover the body, then added a few different shades of the same to give it a 3D effect.

The Flickr album is available on this link. Please send me your comments.

It stared at the caterpillar resting on the leaf. It seemed to sense it’s every movement, the caterpillar, changes his position with every flinch of it’s beak, fighting back the urge to lash out at the insect. When suddenly, the toucan struck. It caught the caterpillar in it’s mouth and flew away, content with it’s […]

So, what do you think ?