‘Thin Frog’ I

‘Thin Frog’ I 

(1) 11”x17” poster; (1) standard CD cover- Thin Frog’s Dreary Dream(referred to as TFDD from here on out).

The peculiar anatomy of frogs makes them both interesting and challenging to draw; in light of limited prior experience illustrating frogs, doing studies was a good first step.

For this project,I based my process and materials on my M.O.T.H. EP album cover– in short, I planned to do a large free drawing/ music line drawing in graphite, using line to visually express the music. Two or three hours of stream-of-consciousness sketching while listening to TFDD (which reminds me a little of the score from The Neverending Story), followed by several more hours of adjusting line weight, resulted in the initial drawing (below). I also used sections of the drawing for a supplementary poster.

Initial Line Drawing

For an album cover, I wanted to re-utilize my idea of tracing sections of the initial free-drawing onto sheets of mylar (a semi-transparent paper), then stacking the layers, finally cutting holes between them to create depth and visual interest. I also wanted to try  incorporating color. So. Big experiment. A quick hour adjusting layers in Photoshop provided some ideas; I laid mylar over the original drawing to trace the lines. Here is how that looked:

Layered Line Drawing

At this point, I’m diggin how the project is going. For color, I painted the bottom layer in a monochromatic ash blue with white.

Bottom Layer

The top layer was several different colors of gouache, which was horribly time consuming and ultimately inefficient. A week’s worth of pushing and pulling at the project did not result in the affect I imagined; though I had never been entirely sure how it would turn out. I may have erred here in both my choice of medium and the application of the medium; the paint on the top layer was too opaque, the colors a little jarring, etc. Here is the top layer in process:

Process Top Layer

Colored pencil applied lightly may have been a good route; so may have been colored ink diluted with water. The gouache may also have been painted on the back side of the mylar; which would likely have gone much more quickly, which would have required less-detailed work, and which would have left the line work on the front of the paper clear and untouched. However, such is the learning process. This is the final image:

Final