The frog, a member of the amphibian family, begins life in a mass of eggs encased in jelly. Hatching as a tadpole, it swims through the pond, breathing through gills like a fish. It wriggles its tail frantically to race away from pursuing fish, ducks, and other predators. Over the next months, it will develop lungs and strong legs, its tail will shrink, and it will emerge onto land. A fly buzzes by, and out flips its long sticky tongue to capture a snack.
You will need:
- Sketch paper
- Bristol paper
- 2B pencil
- Prismacolors
- On sketch paper, let’s determine proportion and placement with a 5¾” x 7” rectangle divided with diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines. Then put in the basic shape, and add details.
- Now go over your frog, building up and burnishing colors. Shade with darker green and add a touch of yellow. Anchor the frog by shading dark brown behind him.
Hint: First, to aid in blending, go over the lower part of the legs and the lighter middle stripe on the frog’s back with white Prismacolor. - With a black Prismacolor add markings on the lower legs. Mark gray circles on the frog’s belly.
- Give the flowers a touch of purple before burnishing them with red. Add dimension to the leaves by shading some with a little red followed by more green. Color the soil below the frog yellow ocher, and shade rocks with brown.
- With horizontal strokes of your light blue pencil, indicate water on the right. Pull your picture together by giving the rocks a tint of light blue.
The white areas that show wet reflections can be added with a gel pen or white crayon.
