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Monarch Butterfly

Year completed: 2009
Medium: Ink Line Art Illustration with Digital Tinting
Description: Fine art drawing of a Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar (Danaus plexippus)

Hand-signed limited edition fine art print (500) of a Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar. The illustration is reproduced on high-quality acid free stock. Dealer inquires are welcome.

Limited edition fine art print:
8"x10" (20.3 x 25.4cm) $17.95
11"x14" (27.9 x 36.6cm) $22.95

Print is in stock and ships in 1-2 days.

This illustration is also available as stock art.

Artist's notes:

monarch butterfly thumb The Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar was completed on April 17th, 2009. I really love caterpillars, although I don't see the big ones like the monarch very often. This was a really fun drawing to create. The drawing is based on a photo by Bob Lepak.

Information about the Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar:

When a Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar is born it is only about 1/8 of an inch long. Due to it's voracious appetite it grows very quickly, first eating it's shell then it will begin to feed on milkweed. For the first days of it's life it will eat nonstop pausing only briefly to rest. It will consume it's on body weight time and time again during this stage. When it is full grown the caterpillar reaches about 2 inches long. When it is ready to pupate it will look for a safe location to weave a small silk attachment to the underside of a branch or leaf. There it will enter the pupal stage shedding it's skin several times, then it will become a chrysalis before the butterfly emerges a couple weeks later.