Christmas and Tamanduás: A Double Celebration is a personal project created to celebrate the holiday spirit and honor the majestic giant anteater. The illustrations were designed for use on greeting cards, gift wrap, and Christmas ornaments, with each piece blending festive charm with the unique beauty of this iconic animal.
The idea of drawing inspiration from the Giant Anteater (tamanduá-bandeira) came after participating in the collective Christmas project, Jungle Bells, developed in collaboration with over 40 Brazilian artists during Victor Beuren's Ilustra SA Course. The project was directed by Ivo Costa and aimed to create a tropical Christmas illustration for a postcard, inspired by an animal from Brazil's fantastic fauna. In this context, I chose the tamanduá-bandeira (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), a fascinating, huge, and solitary animal with a distinctive appearance.
I combined traditional techniques for the sketches with digital techniques for rendering and title animation.
For this individual project, I deepened my research on the giant anteater and created illustrations not only to celebrate its unique beauty but also to raise awareness about its conservation, highlighting the importance of respecting and protecting this extraordinary species, which is threatened with extinction.
During my research, I discovered several fascinating facts about giant anteaters, such as their lack of teeth, their extremely long tongues, and their exclusive diet of ants and termites!
They are predominantly nocturnal animals, which is why I chose dark colours that evoke the night.
One of the most common habitats of the giant anteater is the Brazilian cerrado, where a wide variety of plants can be found, such as Buriti (Mauritia flexuosa), Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense), Cajuzinho-do-cerrado (Anacardium humile), Guapeva (Pouteria ramiflora), and Taboa (Typha domingensis).
I loved creating this project —hope you loved seeing it!
Thanks for watching!
Looking for something like this?I would be happy to discuss potential collaborations.
Get in touch at jimi.serra.illustrator@gmail.com