Green frogs. The poster child of amphibians.
Maybe you didn't know, but I love drawing frogs. (And toads!)
In fact without my hyper fixation you wouldn't know the difference between them.
So today, I'm going to share my wise knowledge on drawing the chubby, grass colored creatures in a crude, cartoony way!
STEP 0 - Program
Technically speaking the steps used here will be applicable to every program, as long as you follow the rules. Krita, MS Paint, Sketchpad, Flash, Scratch, Paper- even on an orange!...I think.
UPDATE: My hands are sticky and covered in orange seeds. Also, I confirmed, you can not draw on an orange using a toothpick. But the rest is all good!
For this tutorial, I'm going to use BurningLllama...I mean, FireAlpaca.
STEP 1 - GUIDE SHAPE
Draw two eggs that are almost perpendicular to each other. One is laying on it's side. The other will be at a titled angle, and will be slanted itself. Kinda looks like a crappy Venn diagram, or a fat heart. Oh yeah, speaking of fat hearts remember this masterpiece I made?
STEP 2 - TRACING LEG
Decrease the opacity of the guide shape and start tracing bits out of it. (If your doing this on paper, lightly erase the circles to the point you can still see them.) While we do that, we begin adding the limbs!
To make a leg, make one long...uh...how do I describe this?...Make a long oblong egg rectangle thingy squashed like an oval near the butt, and towards the opposite direction. Make it decently long. Then make the leg at the knee joint point downwards at an acute angle. Sorry I'm using a lot of math terminology.
Lastly is the webbed food. Just draw three arches that point at another angle, kind of like a very squashed and rounded off W with another V attached to it. By the end it should look like this (like a bent elbow)
STEP 3 - TRACING ARMS
Follows a similar pattern to the first, by drawing a long oblong egg rectangle thingy squashed like an oval near the chest area. Point it downwards, parallel to the body. The next leg has it's joint at more of a squashed < look, so draw it in that direction. Make sure it hits the ground. Draw the webbed feet again, but make it a less squased WV.
Do it again on the backside, almost paralleling the other one, but erase the part the big ol' body is covering.
STEP 4 - TRACING FACE
Go to the top of the vertical egg shape and make two arches, one on the far left and the one on the far right. In between make a mini arch that's kind of like a ridge. For each arch, draw a great big circle under it. Then draw cross-eyed pupils. I almost always draw my frogs cross-eyed. You should to...or else...
Oh yeah, the mouth. Can't forget the mouth. Just draw a small protrusion like the Simpsons and pull it back a lot. Usually I draw my frogs frowning, but you don't have to follow that.
And ultimately, your new sketch should look like this:
Now we're getting somewhere!
STEP 5 - RE-TRACE YOUR STEPS
Set the opacity to your new sketch and begin tracing over it to make the FINAL outline! Keep in mind you don't have to follow it 100%. Make some small edits if you want to it; for example, I brought up the frog's mouth and made his limbs wider.
Also don't forget the other details! The legs and arms should be connected to the body, which can be made by erasing the end of the long oblong egg rectangle thingy squashed like an oval. The underside of the belly should have a line from the chest to...I guess the bottom. As for the eyes, usually give them big black pupils with circular whites inside.
Like an alien.
STEP 6 - COLOR
I think I've been yapping for a while, so let's move onto the final step! Hide the previous reference layer and chose a main skin color. I went with green (a.k.a. verde, Soy buen el espanol), cuz...well I like green frogs, okay?
But you can go with any natural frog color! Blue, red, orange, pink...yellow...wow, frogs are actually really colorful.
Anyway, make a lighter color of that for the underbelly of the frog. Shading is optional, just make it a darker color of the original skin color and shade accordingly...following what I did. Lastly, the eyes. Chose a bright yellow or orange color and fill in the sclera. (That's fancy talk for the white part of the eye!)
Wait! Don't forget to sign your art so everyone knows you made it!
AND VOLA! We have finished a masterpiece! Looks like it's going to be cherished for decades.
Now you know how to draw cool frogs!
If this tutorial failed-...um...try again, I guess! :D
Abrupt ending. TvT
ninesevenpotatoes, 2025
P.S. Anyone else excited for the new Amphibia book?
