Frog Painting
Today I decided that instead of just doing a sketch like I usually do, I would actually try to do a painting. This is from a photo of a frog that I took out in front of our house a while back.
I started by drawing the frog and some of the leaves and branches. I decided to paint the light colors first, and then add the dark colors after the lighter colors were in place. That way I could build the color gradually and wouldn’t wind up accidentally painting everything too dark. I think it worked out pretty well.
A couple of quick things I’ll mention. The texture on the three big leaves was created with a piece of cheesecloth. I put down a wash of yellow and blue on each leaf, then laid a small piece of cheese cloth over the top with the fibers stretched apart. As it dried it created texture on the leaves.
I tried to get my darks really dark – especially right next to the frog since that’s my focal point. I always have problems with my dark colors being splotchy, so I wanted to see if I could keep them smooth. For each dark area, I wet the paper and did a wash of dark color, allowed it to dry and repeated the process several more times.
They are still pretty splotchy, but the colors got nice and rich. Also, for what it’s worth, they look less splotchy in person than in the scan. I think the scanner kind of emphasizes flaws in paintings.
The only real problem I can see is that the edges of the dark washes dried with a bit of a sheen to them. You can’t see it from the front – just when you look at it from the side. It’s like the difference between flat and semigloss house paint. It doesn’t really bother me, but I’m not sure why it happened.
All in all I’m happy with how this came out. I feel like all the quick sketches I’ve done up until now have taught me a lot of cool things I can incorporate into my paintings.
