Froggie went a-courtin'

I'm more than two years late with this post — it was supposed to be posted back in October 2023! I found these pics when I was poking around my MacBook looking for things to delete, because my available hard drive space had dwindled down to a mere 1.1 GB. Incidentally that was also the entire hard drive capacity of my family's IBM Aptiva back in 1997!

But anyway — 

There were four progress photos of a small watercolour frog I painted. I can't remember what commentary was supposed to go with them, so I'll just post the pics.

First, the pencil outlines.

 

Then I filled in the background, everything except the frog's green body, the following day.

 

Just another view of it. It's A5 watercolour paper masking-taped to some porous cardboardy stuff that came as packing material.

 

And we're done! Looks like I wasn't happy with those vines in the background and blurred them out altogether. 

I painted this mainly to amuse my Japanese friend Meg who liked a drawing of a 'frog craftsman' I did earlier in 2023, and asked me to draw another frog. Hence this. And yes, that is a bowl of nachos in his hand. So, there you go! I hope you've enjoyed looking at this little critter as much as I have.

So, what did I draw in 2023?

I'm back! I'm sure you expected more than three measly blog posts from me in 2023. What can I say, drawing, colouring and printing a 128-page colour graphic novel took up a good chunk of my time. Here's what the front cover looks like:

And in this artistic yearly wrap-up, here are some of my other drawings from 2023, in chronological order. 

 

Violet, a character from my 2020 graphic novel The Snarley, riding a bike in a rural setting. Exercise in drawing characters not seen in their usual environments.

A frog craftsman in his workshop.

Mona Lisa, an Indian film actress. She appears in my unreleased graphic novel Limelight from 2021.

Wonka in Picasso style.

A Roman emperor with a metal detector.

Steam locomotive.

Feather, a character who appeared in Airbury Academy and Limelight, among other things.

Fremantle sheds.

Watercolour drawing of a frog. That's a bowl of nachos in his hand, if you can't tell.

Watercolour tanuki, inspired by Studio Ghibli's Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko. This is, of course, the 'Reiwa' version.

Tintin and Juliet Prime investigate the 'poison of madness'. This year was 40 years since the death of Hergé.

Spike and Violet in a Norman Rockwell parody.

Juliet and friends going carolling. I was going to write some lyrics above Seymour's head, but I couldn't be bothered. Now, get lost!

The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam

This is an illustration inspired by The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam, a book of 11th Century poetry from Persia which you should read if you get the chance. Most printings include a series of colour illustrations, much more detailed than my simple watercolour.