Monarch on Coneflower Canvas Print

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A simple charcoal sketch of a monarch butterfly on a coneflower (echinecea purpura). The monarch is my son's favorite of the butterflies, and he wanted to see what I could do with it. This page in my sketchbook served as the basis for my watercolor painting, but it looks so nice on its own in just charcoal that I wanted to share it.

I often joke that I learned to draw and paint because it is easier and quicker for me than getting a good photograph. I do still make the attempt to use my camera more effectively from time to time, but I have more natural aptitude to using a pencil or paint. Often what few photographs I am satisfied with become reference for my artwork. I work with charcoal, soft pastels, oil pastels, watercolor, acrylic, and am learning oil painting. I tend towards more realistic, although I have dabbled in impressionism when the fancy strikes. I live at the dead end of a dirt road in rural Florida with my husband and a yardful of critters, while the local deer and wild turkeys eat my annual efforts at gardening.