One of my latest projects was painting a frog or pond themed table and chair set.
I love painting little ponds with a "bird's eye view" and have featured them on many pieces. Including little surprises like a snail and dragonfly make the project fun and it is a suitable design for both boys and girls.
There is a project in my book Mural Magic that features one of these ponds on a bench.
I will show you the steps from my book as well as include videos of me actually painting the frog on the table top. Here is the first video showing the base coating of the frog after he is sketched on the table with a white pencil. You can watch all of my painting videos in larger screen size on my YouTube channel (coriekline).
You can see that it is simply a matter of loading your #10 flat brush with three colors (Apple Barrel English Ivy Green, Ceramcoat Light Foliage Green, and Ceramcoat Old Parchment). By blending the colors based on highlights and shadowing, you have a very nice base coat that defines the curves and shape of the frog. I am using both the flat part and chisel edge of the brush.
Here is the second layer where deeper tones are added to give depth and highlights are added for dimension.
This video clip shows how to float shadow around the frog using a liner brush and watered down black paint. I also add the details of the frog's face to make it come to life!
Here are some of the steps for the entire table scene from my book that you can purchase from me (by contacting me at coriekline@mac.com) or from any online book seller.
The frog can also be blocked in with a solid green and save the shading for the next step. Either way, I have fallen in love with the positioning and shape of this frog and use him frequently in other projects.
Below are the full pages from the book, Mural Magic, just to give you an idea of how the book specifically lays out the steps.
