I thought this was going to be a quick painting and a bit of a teaser to a future painting I have planned. As I discovered this painting has rather a lot of detail in the moss and the frogs skin so the time blow out a little.

I started with a light green wash for the frogs skin and a rough placement of the tree moss.

The frogs eyes almost seem to have gold and black speckles which I found hard to reproduce at first but after a little persistence I started to get the colouring right.

As always I try and do something a little different each time, and this was trying to make an out of focus background. Maybe more water and less paint, but I get a little worried about the paper warping too much and had to tape it down.

More experimentation needed in this technique I think.

Time to start adding a little more foreground detail and try and create some convincing moss.

After close inspection of the frogs skin I discovered it was covered in tiny little dimples and bumps. So I started recreating this with little dots of green and brown very close together giving me a more realistic look.

Close up of my new brush and lots of tiny dots very close together.

Lots more detail in the eyes with white added and darkening of the lower half of the eye. Also adding white to the skin gave it a little more convincing wet look. This sort of worked for the moss but to get truly photographic moss I would need another 7hrs+ I think and I was on a time limit.

I absolutely love this little frog and its smile, totally brightens my day.

Finished artwork but in the afternoon setting sun it gave the artwork more of a warm cast. Sometime you just have to go with what you have, an old iPhone and a sunsetting and not a professional setup.

Art work framed and gifted to a friend.

I must admit that I had lots of fun painting this one and could easily do a whole series of frogs on logs, which I’m sure I will one day.