The first step is to transfer the image, you can find this on our web page. We printed this out to A3 sizing and have shaded the backside, flipped it over, taped it into position on a sheet of oil pastel paper and retraced the linework.

It’s a good idea to keep some paper towels close at hand to clean your hands between colours and after blending. We start from the left to avoid smudging any work with the back of the hand.

You might like to print out the colour reference sheet at this point.

The rule of thumb is to lay in colours with into the appropriate areas and then blend them together so that the colours amalgamate and is a consistent tone.

For the lily pads we used a combination of Olive, khaki, Dark Olive, Hookers Green and Sepia. These are then blended in this case with the fingertip. Black is then thickly applied around the lily pad’s.

To create a sharp edge between the black and green a fingertip can be dragged over where they join.

Once the Lilly pads in the left upper corner have been created, start on the frog as it will be easier to lay colour around the frog once it is finished.

The main body colour and front arms is made up of Green and Chartreuse.  It is important to use different greens than those used in the Lilly pads otherwise the frog will get lost.

The eyes can be laid in with crimson and a high light can be laid in with a dot of white with the end of a palette knife.

The lip, stripe down the belly, and back of the arms can be laid in with yellow and applied with the palette knife. Ultra Marine Blue is then laid into the shoulder and under the yellow stripe.  The under side of the frog can be laid in with Van dyke Brown mixed with a touch of hookers green.

The underside is laid in with Fawn again applied with the palette knife.

Our frog has Bright orange hands and feet. To lay this in, we can cut the end off the pastel and apply it with the end of the palette knife. This way the thick application suggests form. If the frog needs a to stand out a little more against the lily pads Chartreuse can be laid across the top of the frog.

Once the frog is complete add more of that lily pad colour around the frog. For any areas of tight detail, a blending stump can be used to push the colour into the tight areas.

The flower is then covered with a thin coat of lemon yellow. Then some shadow areas can be laid into the inside of each petal with grey and any highlights can be laid in with titanium white.

That blending stump can be used again to soften any shadow areas or create sharp edges.

Black can then be used to surround the flower.

The final step is to add any highlights with mint on the lily pads and the frog to suggest shine.