Red Eyed Tree Frog 3 - Part 4

Red Eyed Tree Frog  - acrylic painting process

I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY GREEN !!!
Today I painted:
the belly using lemon yellow, warm yellow, green and white
the arm of the frog using white, lemon yellow and blue lake
the 'hand' in the foreground with warm yellow and orange
and some work on the face.
Oh, and another 'glaze' on the background...

I'm hell-bent on making a success of this painting by actually completing it soon.


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Red Eyed Tree Frog 3 - Part 3

Red Eyed Tree Frog  - acrylic painting process

I haven't even started on the body of this tree frog yet - nevermind the red eyes...

Enjoying the painting process but not this particular painting.
It's a really big size - 1metre by 80cm to make a mess of and not easily gotten rid of (if it were a watercolour I could chop it up for bookmarks...)

I'm still thinking this tree frog looks like a cartoon rather than a painting.
Hopefully by the time I get to paint the frog's body - it will resemble a more 'realistic' look. I've spent hours on this one so far and really trying to get the leaves right.
Payne's gray was applied in various dilutions to get the shadows 'right' and define the huge leaf. I'm starting to wish I'd painted a banana leaf instead.
The face shadows were dry brushed with Payne's gray as well.

The background got another brushing of green paint and a thin layer of yellow paint to cover the ochre which I thought was looking too dull.

Any helpful suggestions anyone?


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Red Eyed Tree Frog 3 - Part 2

Red Eyed Tree Frog  - acrylic painting process

This tree frog IS proving to be a little challenge.
I've found I have to be very careful with my observations.
In this 'episode' of my painting's development I painted a few layers of light green in a water colour-type wash.
Whilst that was still wet, I brushed some viridian hue where the shadow was intended to be...
I then used blue lake to define the black bits and went to give more green into the leaf by using a mix of phthalo blue and medium yellow.
Having put a little too much blue on the tray, I used it up by layering the previous black bits and shadows. Standing back and looking at the overall pic I decided to bring some more yellow ochre to the background - using a flick or few of leftover green into the mix as well.
After that, I used a thicker wash of medium yellow to define the thick veins of the leaf.
And that's where we are up to... The red eyes of the tree frog are very tempting but I'm saving that for another time.
If I'm not back before the new year - have a great festive season...

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red eyed tree frog - painting process

Red Eyed Tree Frog 3 - Part 1

And so begins my third painting in the series, "Red Eyed Tree Frog"...

In case you're wondering, the 'cracks' are the veins of the leaves.
I've painted them in a funny mix of yellow, lemon yellow and yellow ochre.
I think this tree frog painting will be very interesting as a study in green...


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Red Eyed Tree Frog 2 - Agalychnis Callidryas

Red Eyed Tree Frog  - Agalychnis Callidryas

Well I guess this tree frog is about as finished as I'm going to be with it unless someone points out an obvious flaw.
I fixed up the body and head and concentrated on the left side "fingers" of the frog.

Then I spent a while on the borders, tyding them up so the colours on the side match the front of the tree frog.

A bit more touching up of the red leaves and "Hey Presto!" painting ready for selling...


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Red Eyed Tree Frog 2 - Part 5
Agalychnis callidryas (amphibian)

I went back and painted more definition on the red leaves.

Then looking at what I'd done I thought I'd 'ruined' it...

So, the canvas stayed in the office for a few days until yesterday when I got the 'creative urge' again - and there was no stopping me... I put in a few hours of concentrated effort and completely forgot to take photos of the progress.

What did I do?...

I decided to give the background a glazed look. Having recently read somewhere about glazing I thought I'd try it on this one since the background covers a large proportion of the canvas...

Glazing is simply a lot of thin layers of colour. Click the link to find out more...
Very easy to do but is Sooooo time consuming.

Another 'trick' I learned about mixing green paint - painting the under-colour blue and then building up layers of thin yellow paint on top of it to produce the required green.

Thankfully I was able to take a pic of the bottom right border of the canvas (which got forgotten about at the time) to show you here. Using BLUE LAKE colour I built up three layers of glaze.

I then used layers of LEMON YELLOW to paint over it to produce the colour you see here...

Now I am off to focus on the frog body and - hopefully - somehow, define the outline from the background...
I have to fix up the right hand side bottom red leaf since some blue lake paint ran and dried on me before I could wipe it all away.
Plus I have to fix up the eyes a bit since some of the glaze got on there too...


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Red Eyed Tree Frog 2 - Part 4
Agalychnis callidryas (amphibian)

I've given more definition to the 'leaves' and the yellow of the flowers. One thing I did concentrate on in this painting are the contrasts between colours, highlights and lines. It seems to be working well so far - usually when I've painted, I blend everything and then outline at the end. Being aware of the use of contrast right from the start seems to make ths painting stand out a lot more.
I also started working on the frog - as you can see, so am slowly bringing it to life...
I'm off to work on the red foliage now cause it's bugging me a bit and will be back with the next update soon...

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Red Eyed Tree Frog 2 - Part 3
Agalychnis callidryas (amphibian)

Slowly slowly I build up definition of the leaves and flowers, layer upon layer of colour.
Ok, that sounds a little slow and pedantic, but for the most part, my hand is working quickly.

The eyes were looking a tad jaded so I filled in the pupils with violet and will add to it until I get that 'almost black' look. Continuing with the violet colour I also added some to accentuate the darker leaves and shadow.

So, now I'm done painting for the day and will see you tomorrow or the next day with the next update...


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Red Eyed Tree Frog 2 - Part 2
Agalychnis callidryas (amphibian)

Figuring out what to paint next is a little challenge. I like to paint a thin layer of different coloured paints to give me an idea of definition, taking care to check where highlighted and shadow bits are. As always, I think the eyes of the frog are the focal part so usually always paint them at the beginning. They're small enough to stand out and it gives me the 'boost' I need to feel confident in my ability to carry on...

Red Eyed Tree Frog 2 - Part 1
Agalychnis callidryas (amphibian)

It all starts with an idea mulling around in my head - brought on by what inspires and moves me. I like Red Eyed Tree Frogs... Why? - dunno, just do...
Looking at photos and other pictures I reach a point where I say, "I recon I could do that..." and off I go. Then comes the fun part - effort... Getting a canvas, priming it with a background colour and drawing the composition so that it is balanced - ready for the next stage...


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