Hi it’s Anna Mason, and in this watercolour tip video I wanted to show you how I went
about painting ALL the different colours to this vibrant tree frog.
I worked from a photo which is vital when the subject is as small and jumpy as this and began with
a contour drawing where I marked in the main areas of contrast between colours, so that it was
as clear as possible where the main boundaries were. Then the crucial first stage for a painting
with SO many colours like this, was to paint a really pale version of each colour in place
first. I paint each colour in turn, letting it dry before applying the next so they don’t
bleed into one another and muddy. In this frog, I broadly worked from the lightest through
to the darkest colours. So I started with the grey-green highlights,
found mostly around the brighter highlights which I left without any paint on them at all. I kept
my mix really pale and watery - knowing I could always darken up with an additional
layer later. With that dry, I went on to paint the yellow-greens and vibrant blue-greens
of the frog’s skin, again keeping really watery with my paint so as to try to match
to the palest version of that colour that I could see in the photo. Now I’m not going to break
down each of the mixes I used here because there are LOTS of them. They're of course detailed
in the 2 hour long video class of this frog in my online School, but the key thing is
that I make good use of the relatively extensive number of paints in my palette. I begin with
the colour closest to the one I want to mix and then I add to it usually only one or two
other colours to get it spot on. For more info about the process, check out other videos
I’ve made about colour mixing. With the lighter greens dry, I paint the darker
greens. All of these areas will need to be darkened with a layer later, but painting
a paler version of these now means it’s easier to correct a mistake - by lifting paint
off with damp kitchen roll, or simply by layering up around them.
Next it was the oranges - there were more yellow and more red-brown versions...followed
by the light turqioise blues…. Then the darker blues - which I applied with
a tiny brush so that I could get them in exactly the right place, leaving circular gaps wherever
lighter spots were present in the skin. Then it was the purples, which I applied with a
stippling brush technique to achieve the sorts of markings I could see in the leg.
Finally I also painted in the black areas with a very watery version of the black mix
- again just to get the colours mapped out and to make sense of the drawing without committing
to a super dark mix straight away. I added a touch of a brown into the bamboo
and ALL the colours were mapped out. From here it was a case of working within each
colour area in turn, working through the darkest tones, then midtones, then making tonal adjustments
with further layers. Always following the golden rule of letting each layer dry in between.
I’d usually start with the very darkest tones in the painting - the blacks in this
case, but I worked with the oranges next so as to minimise the risk of any bleeding happening
in the eye area. I started with the darkest tones in the oranges, using thicker mixes, then watered
them down and adjusted the colours to work on the midtones. Because we perceive tone as relative
to the tones around it, I could now see that a few other areas needed darkening so I worked
on them next, adjusting the amount of water in my mix to match how dark I needed to take
an area. With the oranges dry, I painted in the blacks
to make judging how dark to take the rest of the colours easier, before going through
exactly the same 3 part process with the dark blues...the purples...the lighter blues...the
greens in the skin, using the tip of my brush to create the texture.
The Yellows in the skin...the darker greens in the bamboo and the lighter greens in the
bamboo. Once all the colour areas had been worked on tonally, I stepped back to review
the painting as a whole and compared colour area to colour area - always checking against
my photo to see if it looked right. I took some areas darker with extra layers and I
added details at this stage such as a line along the mouth and around the eye.
This is a lengthy but really enjoyable stage which makes all the difference to the painting’s
realism and completes the piece. A full video class of this painting is available
now in my online School. If you’ve enjoyed this video, please subscribe to my YouTube
channel and I’d love it if you’d share it with your friends.
If you’ve yet to take one of my tried and tested full length video classes FOR FREE,
make sure you visit AnnaMasonArt.com where you’ll find even more resources to help
you pick up your brush and paint the way you’ve always wanted to.
Remember, you won’t improve your painting unless you MAKE the time to paint. So be sure
to schedule in some me-time this week and paint something that YOU love. And if you need
help with that, my website also has plenty of tips to help you make painting a priority.
Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you soon with another tip for creating watercolours
with “wow”.