On the Easel: A Friendly Frog

The most recent thing I’ve been working on (aside from some touch ups) is a frog. It’s actually inspired by the earlier post I had with a photo of a frog. He’s a friendly little guy. This is the current progression. I’ve been documenting the stages. I will also post the final when I’m done.

Stage One

I painted the background and did an underpainting of the frog.

Stage Two

Started painting the frog with two teal colors, one on the green side and one on the blue side, and of course there were various values of the two colors. Obviously he’s still missing his eye and one foot.

Stage Three

The frog now has two eyes and two feet, plus I did some glazing and some work with the highlights and shadows. I work with fresh paint every session, so I have to mix the same colors again, which went pretty smoothly, which is good because it’s a bit nerve wracking.

I think the colors in the third stage photo are a better representation of reality than the first two, however a photo will never be exact and you have to add monitor differences. But this one was taken when dry in natural light, so it’s a bit better.

At this point, there is still likely 1-2 sessions. I will likely do some more glazing as I would like to see a bit more contrast in the shadows, add spots, plus tighten some other things up and make a few modifications. I am also thinking about doing some glazing in the background. I will post again when I’m done. Hopefully that will been sooner than later.

I also have plans for a water landscape from Alaska. It will be all about subtle color and texture. It’s drawn and gessoed. Need to figure out what else I’m doing, I should have 3-4 paintings in various stages at a time that I am happy with. I have about 8 that I’m unhappy with and considering painting over, so those don’t count.