Frog Wildlife

Take the stencils for the eyes and mouth and the contour stencil from the "Frog Wildlife" stencil set and place them on top of each other onto your painting surface, so that body parts and eyes are in exactly the right position.

We will continue with water-diluted HANSA pro-color black. First carefully spray over those parts of the stencil which make the contours of the mouth and eyes visible.

Now remove the eyes and mouth stencil and continue with the body stencil. Secure it with weights and cover the exposed areas in order to allow no spraying over the stencil’s edge. First add a layer of bright green mixed from citrus yellow, ice blue and water (20:1:5). Keep in mind the light and shadows on the frog’s body. With 5 additional drops of umbra you will get a darker green to add some more shading to the eye and the frog’s legs. With 2 additional drops of black you will get a dark green for even more shading.

With a mixture of fire red and umbra you can create a reddish brown which is a wonderful color for the frog’s knees and belly. The shadow around the mouth which leads all the way down to the elbow should be gently sprayed with a mixture of water and umbra.

Certain structures and highlights can be finished with eraser pencils and an electric eraser. Add a few small colored areas to the knees and the lower left belly with transparent ice blue.

The newly sprayed surfaces will be finished with erasers. You can create smaller spots with an electric eraser, for larger white patches you should use an eraser pencil. This is how the frog’s belly will receive its structure.

For the next step, spray some transparent brown onto the belly in order to better embed the structure into the overall picture. Create a few more structures and highlights in the upper mouth area, with the eraser. This will make the frog appear wet. If these patches appear too bright, you can spray over them with a little bit of transparent green.

For the next step, place the stencil for the front arms (eyes and mouth stencil) on your painting surface. Make sure you place it correctly.

First spray the arms, again with a bright green, and then add some shading with a mix of green and umbra. Use ice blue to add some shading to the arms in order to give the frog its overall colorful appearance. The electric eraser complements the frog’s typical structure, and again you can create highlights with the eraser pencil.

Here you can see the intermediate results. Add a bit more shading to the belly, with umbra. The rear foot’s attachment has already been realized with the stencil. You start on the left with green and then blend over into a reddish orange. One of the fingers has already been sprayed as well. First, spray a layer of bright orange, and then spray along the outer contours with red, so that it will get its shape.

For the fingers, use the eyes and mouth stencil once more. Again, it’s important to work with light and shadow, so that everything will appear realistic. Therefore you should again start with a bright orange mixed from citrus yellow, red and water (10:1:5). Then add shading with reddish orange.

Add structures and highlights to the fingers. You can add these details with an eraser pen and an electric eraser.

Once more: the intermediate results. The transition from the front of the arm to the belly has been optimised by adding some extra blue to the resulting edge.

Correctly position the stencil for the intraocular areas. First spray the iris with bright orange-yellow. Then use a strong orange-red (a mixture of yellow and red, 5:5) along the outer edges of the eye, so that the pupil is surrounded by a bright gradient.

Place the stencil for the black areas onto the motif and spray over it once more with black in order to reach a higher contrast of the eyes’ and mouth’s details.

The "Frog Wildlife" stencil includes three different options for the eye’s reflection. For instance, use the stencil with the landscape. Then spray just a tiny bit of white along the lower edge of the stencil, in order to attain a bit of a radiant and the silhouette becomes visible. Then lightly spray over it with a highly transparent mixture of blue and water.

Here you can see the intermediate results with the finished frog.

For the next step, completely cover the frog and the background with masking film. Then use a pencil to indicate the contour lines of a tree trunk on which the frog will later sit, and cut out this area.

It continues with different shades of brown. Paint the structures roughly with a brush.