i normally don't mix a lot of colours on my palette.
I prefer to let the paint blend together on the paper
but I found that I needed to do a bit of mixing for this little frog.
I had no intention of painting another frog but when I saw the reference photo
that i used to paint this one I couldn't resist.
I'll show you the reference photo soon. You might remember this frog that I
painted a few months ago. I talked about a technique called
'charging' where I drop one colour onto another colour while the
paper's damp and the colours melt into one another. I
did that a little bit on this new frog but I also used another
technique where I put some paint down on the paper and
then I lay another colour next to that first colour
while it was damp and the second colour bled into the first
colour and that created some lovely effects.
The reference photo was taken by Michelle Kaiser
and I bought it from Wildlife Reference Photos
which is a great site to find lots of different wildlife photos that you can
paint from. I'll put a link in the description of
this video. I used Arches paper for this painting. This
is cold pressed 300 gsm or 140
pound paper. I stretched it before I painted on it. Iiput the paper in landscape orientation and i pushed the frog up the top of the
paper so that I could have a drip of paint
coming down underneath him. I also had a play with the frog in my
journal before i painted the main painting.
I used greens and other colours straight out of the tube for this frog
but I found that the colours were a bit overwhelming,
particularly the greens, so I decided to mix my own greens instead of using the
pre-mixed greens. I also mixed up the orange that I used
on the feet as well and I was a lot happier with the colours
on the main painting. So you'll see me do a little bit of
mixing in this video. I started getting out the colours that I
thought I'd need. That's Indian yellow, some Cadmium red. These are Winsor and Newton colours. That's Winsor blue
red shade put some Cobalt turquoise light
and I'll get some Burnt sienna as well. I'm going to mix Indian yellow
with Winsor blue to make the green for the reed
or the stalk that the frog is sitting on.
I want it lighter than that so I'll put a bit more yellow into it.
I want a brighter green for the frog so I'll use some Winsor lemon instead of
the Indian yellow and I'll mix the Winsor lemon with
Winsor blue for that green.
I've painted on that olive green that I mixed up with the Indian yellow and
Winsor blue. This is going on to the reed that the
frog is sitting on. I've faded the colour away down the
bottom but up near the frog I've got a bit more colour.
Now I'm dropping in some water to create some watercolour blooms which will
disturb the pigment - create a bit of texture on the reed.
That's that section dry now so I can continue on up further.
I filled in the rest of the reed with that green that I mixed
and I've put some watercolour blooms on there as I said
and that's created that texture that's on there.
I'll mix up an orange now for the feet. I'll use Cadmium red and Winsor lemon.
I'll mix the two together.
I don't want to put the colour on too dark at this stage because I've got
other colours to go on over the top.
I'll mix a bit of water into it so that it's not too dark.
That orange that I just mixed up I'm using to paint in the feet.
Now I'll paint all of the feet in with this colour
and I'll paint them on dry paper. I masked off
the white highlights on the feet before I started painting.
As I said I don't want this colour to be too dark just yet because I've got other
colours to go over the top when I add the detail.
Now I'm starting to use that green that I mixed up for the frog
from Winsor lemon and Winsor blue. What I want to do on this arm is put the
other colours on and let the colours bleed together so I've got the green on there
first and now I'm starting to paint the orange
onto the foot and when the orange touches the green -
that's still damp - those two colours will bleed into one
another.
So here they're touching now and you can see that the orange is running into the
green.
Now I've got some Indigo on my brush and I want the Indigo along this top
edge of the arm and I want it to bleed into the green as
well
and that will give me those lovely soft loose edges that I'm looking for.
Now I've got some Cadmium red on my brush. I'm dabbing that onto the edge of
the orange there while it's still damp.
I want to leave that arm for now and i'm going to get some colour onto the
body of the frog. In that area I'm going to need a darker colour for the shadows
so I'm mixing a dark bluey gray here with Burnt Sienna and Winssor blue.
So now that that darker colour is mixed up and ready for me
I can start to paint in the body of the frog with the main colour.
This colour is Daniel Smith's Buff titanium.
This colour will sit underneath the other colours that I put over the top.
I'll paint this area wet on wet so that all the colours will melt into one
another and create some interesting loose effects.
The first colour I'll drop in is the orange that I mixed up for the feet.
Now that I've got the orange where I want it I've picked up that
darker shadow coluor that I mixed from Winsor blue and Burnt sienna
and I'm starting to paint that on now.
I try not to fuss with it because I want to see three distinct colors here. I
don't want it to all blend into one and create one new colour.
I have to dry it off now because I've got more work to do
underneath the mouth. If I started to paint
while the paint was still wet, the work that was going to go
underneath the mouth would go over the top of the mouth.
So I need to dry that off so that I can re-wet it.
I also don't want to disturb the work that I've already done. I want it to sit
the way I've got it so I dry it off and that sets it.
So now I can re-wet the area underneath the mouth where I want to work
and I''m not worried about the paint going up onto that little section of
mouth at the top there. That keeps that area lighter.
So I pick up a bit more paint and then I put some more paint on there.
It's a bit darker this time so I've taken the water out of my brush.
Down here I'm going to do the same thing. I want the colours
to blend into one another so I'm working on wet paper here.
I've wet it with water before I started putting the paint on.
I'm trying to get in and around the toe here with this darker colour.
So that's the same colour that I used on the body. I'm continuing it down now
underneath the reed.
I'm painting carefully around the toe there because I don't want to get any
paint on it. I painted the green and the orange on
this section earlier just after I painted in the reed.
I put the green from the frog and the orange from the toes onto that area
and then I wet it with my spray bottle and I let the paint run down the paper.
So that area has dried. I've re-wet it and now I'm able to bring this darker
colour onto this section to form the bottom of the frog.
Now I'm going to drop some Cadmium red in there to add interest to it.
I need a bit more colour on this lighter section so I'm using my wet brush
to pull some of that colour over the top.
Even though these wet on wet areas look loose and
random I put the paint on deliberately and carefully
and I think about what i'm going to do before i do it.
Here on the toes I've painted another layer of the orange around the outside
edge to create the rim that's there. Now I want to paint some Cadmium red on.
I've wet the paper here because I want the paint to bleed across the toe.
I use the reference photo to guide me as to where to put these dark
areas of colour but I don't follow the reference photo
exactly as I see it. Here I'm softening the paint edge.
Now I've decided that I want the colour to be bolder
so I've wiped my wet brush over the pigment to get it this dark.
So rather than pick up the watery paint that I've mixed on the palette
I'll wipe my brush over the pigment itself
and that gives me that really bold rich colour.
The paper is wet where I'm working.
Up here on the frog I'm starting to paint in the head
and this other arm. I'm using the green that I mixed up from
Winsor blue and Winsor lemon.
When that green paint is all washed in I'll wash the paint out of my brush
and I'll pick up some Winsor lemon and I'll drop that onto the lighter areas of
the green.
I've got some Winsor lemon on my brush now and I drop that on to the damp green
paint. I'll pick up a bit more.
I put it over here.
When that first layer of green paint is dry
I can paint on the darker areas of the frog's head with a darker green.
I mixed the green for the frog with Winsor lemon and Winsor blue.
To make it darker all I have to do is mix a bit more Winsor Blue into the
mix and that's what I'm using here.
So I paint it onto the dry paper then I take the paint out of my brush
and I use my damp brush to soften the paint edges.
I washed both of the eyes in with the orange that I used on the feet and
now I'm re-wetting this right one with water
because I want to paint some Cadmium red onto it.
I'm painting the water on there because I want the Cadmium red to bleed in from
the outer edge.
I want this Cadmium red to be fairly dark so I wipe my brush over the pigment
rather than use watery paint. The other thing i do
is I roll the tip of my brush to get the point back.
I run that around the outer edge of the eye and it bleeds in towards the center.
If there are any edges that I need to soften I take the paint out of my brush,
take the excess moisture off it and then I use the damp brush
to soften away the paint edges
and when that paint dries I use some Lamp black to paint in the pupils.
Then when I've just about finished the frog I need to see if there are
any areas that could be a bit darker. Here I'm increasing the colour in the
shadow area with some Indigo.I just take the moisture out of my
brush and I can spread that paint out and
push it where I want it.
I want to put some Indigo over here as well.
I've wet this area with water. Now I use my clean brush to soften away
the edge.
And there it is.
I had a lot of fun painting this little frog and I hope you enjoyed the video.
As always a like is very much appreciated
and please subscribe if you haven't already and I will see you
next week with a new video. Enjoy your week.
i'll show you the reference photo soon you might remember
this frog that i painted
i had no intention of painting another frog but when i saw the reference photo
i used to paint this one i could
couldn't couldn't
you might remember this frog that i painted a few months ago
i talked about a technique called a technique
technique i normally don't mix a lot of colors on
my palette i prefer to
but i found that i didn't particularly like the colors they were a bit
overwhelming particularly the greens i'm saying particularly
particularly
i also mixed up the orange that i used on the hands
pants frogs
and i pushed the frog up the top of the paper
so that i could have a bit of a drip of paint coming down
underneath him and
before i painted on it and i painted the frog in
landscape formation
and i painted it in landscape orientation
and i pushed the frog up to the top of the paper
so that i could have a bit of a drip coming down underneath him
trip you're a bit of a drip louise