Today I am sharing with you my first tutorial. You will learn how to draw toads.
Why toads? Because they are so simple and you will see it yourself.
First of all some interesting characteristics that differentiate toads from frogs:
They have rough, dry, bumpy, usually brown skin. Also they have shorter legs than frogs, less bulgy eyes and can live on land.
More details with illusrtations
The main reason we are drawing toads and not frogs is that they are rounder. Circles and ovals are the key to learning to drawing elements from nature.
You need a regular HB pencil, or even better, a 1B (softer pencil). H pencils are harder and not convenient for learning. Now grab some scrap paper for practicing circles.
Use a ruler to draw two parallel lines and fill them with circles. Do as many as you like and any size.
Avoid pressing hard, also keep your elbow and wrist in the air for better drawing control. I used a 7B pencil to accentuate several steps for better visibility.
The reason you should do the exercise above is to ease your hand into drawing smooth circle without breaking the line. A smooth imperfect circle is more appealing than a perfect, but jagged one.
Now lets begin with the tutorial :D
The following toads were made without references, with very simple steps
Step 1- the base
Draw a big circle for the body and a smaller oval for the head. Try drawing softly so it's easier to erase. Also it is much easier if the head is up on the body, even though the steps are same.
Feel free to follow the steps exactly same. After the first time it gets easier.
Step 2 - face
Adding eyes- the space between the eye is like one eye. Or you can imagine the frog with 3 eyes and don't draw the middle one. Also the eye that is away from us is more of a oval or more like half a circle.
Step 3 & 4- legs and back
Now you can also add the nostrils , the mouth- make the snout little angled.
Drawing legs- use ovals to indicate their position. Front legs will be under the head a little closer to the center of the body. The back legs
Defining the back - add a straight line from the head and round it off little sharper at the buttocks just as in the drawings above.
Step 5 & 6- The fun part- adding texture and shading
This is where the toad comes to life.
For this tutorial our light-sun is from up. So the belly and the neck will be in shadow. On the legs shade the lower part touching the ground.
How to shade - draw many lines in one direction, also accentuate the toad's outline in the shadowed areas.
Texture- There are many toad textures, to make it easier, pick one from below and draw it on the beck of your toad.
Done! Now share your results in the comments! ^-^
Also you can't go wrong as there are many toad types in nature...
Bonus
These are some old silly frogs I did around 4 years ago :D
Toad-Dragon Hybrid
Pixel art Naruto Toad
Let me know if you would like to see more tutorials and feel free to request next topic for tutorial :D
You can use the above image for a quick reference in the future. :D
If you try this tutorial and post the results in the comments or link to your post: I will follow you, comment and upvote another recent post of yours!
I will not be posting a sketchbook challenge today, but I'b sure this qualifies. This post took me longer than expected but I hope some of you find it helpful :D
Please don't forget to upvote, resteem and follow so you don't miss any new posts!
Thank you for reading!
Some toad studies
All the reference photos
This is an awsome post - thank you for sharing it. I am not sure if you would have choose this one for first week giveaway at reggaemuffin. As for me this one is even better than the one with dragons!!! Well deserved upvote and small compliment in an art form.
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Thank you! I posted while I still qualified to enter :D
(Not sure if I qualify anymore at 50 points, hopefully reggaemuffin won't be too strict) ^-^
The froggie is adorable! :D
I think he will still count it%) If I were you I would not really worry about the competition, I am sure you will find people who likes your work and build your circle so the prize of this competition will do not matter%)) I wish you all the best and will be checking your new posts%))
The thing is I prefer to spend time drawing rather than "marketing" my work and looking for people. And I don't like promoting my posts on other peoples posts. Competitions are fun and easy to find new followers and people to follow :)
True%) But what I meant was that your works are good so the people will be very attracted to them without you even do lot of "marketing"%)) your artworks are the best marketing tools you have%)) this is the expert marketer saying%)) hehe%)) but you know it yourself%)
Actually if you check out art discovery feed, a lot of artwork is buried down very fast. (I also know from Deviantart experience). Getting the first followers is probably hardest, afterwards work quality is all that's important :)
Also from my blog you can actually see which posts I promoted more and which less. Even though some posts get so many views and upvotes, a the older ones don't.
This is the friendliest, coolest, most fun thing I've seen on Steemit this week! I love toads & frogs! We have lots of both on our property. Thanks for posting, and I'll get busy on a toady drawing :)
Thank you! :D Please share with us what you end up drawing! ^-^ And if you get a chance, also share a photo of your toads and frogs!
Great work, I have always loved frogs!
Thank you :D Hope you try this and share.
I dont like frogs but great work!
Thank you :) Any requests for future tutorial?
I like cars, try drawing a Tesla?
Cars are pretty difficult for me :)
I probably can't do a simple tutorial for that.
Very nice tutorial. It's good to see people teching themselves and sharing their knowledge
Thank you!
I improved faster because people shared tutorials, so now it's my turn :D
Here they are! I was having trouble with proportions, and wanted to see some more anatomical detail, so I looked online for some photos. You're toads are cuter! I need to practice not having the pencil in a death-grip. Thanks for the lesson!
They are awesome left one is really cute and realistic! :3 Thank you for sharing
Followed!!!
Also thank you for feedback, will try to improve next tutorial ^-^
I LOVE your toads! I did a series in College. I will have to see if I can find it and share it with you. This is a great post - I loved seeing your entire process and all of your sketches. Very nice :)
Thank you!
Please do find and share, I would love to see it ^-^
Maybe make a post about some of your college art? :D
Some of the work in my intro post was from college, this series on my six sad stories I am doing right now is also from college. I will have all kinds of stuff from what I am doing now to what I have done all the time! :) If I can find that one piece I will definitely share!