This month, it’s all been about my Frog’s Bucket List series. Some of you may remember from my July blog (The York Sketches – Illustrations of my Mini Culture Trip to York) that I mentioned I was working on an exciting froggy project. Well, the time has come to reveal all. Drum roll please… I published a book!
Frog book, you say?
Ok so the blog title may have given that away already. But this is something I’ve been working on all year, pretty much since last Christmas. After months of hard work, it’s been exciting to see it all come together this month.
It’s going to get very froggy from here on in. For those not familiar, you can view my Frog’s Bucket List portfolio for a bit of context – these are some of my more light-hearted artworks. I’ve developed their froggy features over the months. My current website portfolio has some of the earlier, less ‘developed’ frogs, whereas the book is more reflective of my current style. Still, I think they’re all cute.
The book contains over fifty of my cute, watercolour frog illustrations – all Christmas themed. If you’re into cute things, or frogs, or Christmas, or especially if you’re into cute Christmas frogs – then this is going to be your kind of book.
It’s a small book, approximately 6.5” x 6”, which I think adds to the cuteness.
Frog’s Bucket List
My two Frog’s Bucket List characters came into my life on a whim. I was scribbling around and they just sort of appeared in my sketchbook one day back in the summer of 2023. I didn’t find them, they found me. It’s hard to explain.
I suppose if you could imagine getting an unexpected knock at the door, and opening it to find a couple of tiny frogs who go ahead and enter your home of their own accord. And that’s that, they’re inside now, they’ve set up camp and there’s nothing you can do about it. They’re here to stay.
And now the paintings won’t stop coming, Frog clearly has a very long bucket list! Which means, of course, that there are plenty more books in the pipeline.
Christmas Fun
To kick start the series, this first book is all about their Christmassy antics and adventures, and it’s aptly called ‘Christmas Fun’.
Here is a sneak preview of some of the pages:
The book largely follows this format, with a caption on the left page and a corresponding picture on the right page. But at the end of the book, there is a checklist of “Frog’s Bucket List” items so that you can join in, if you want.
Some things may appear to be very small and insignificant – perhaps not things us humans might consider big enough to make it onto a bucket list. However, you have to remember these are exciting times for frogs. And Frog embraces the opportunity to go on all kinds of adventures, big and small.
Creating the illustrations
A bit about the process. All the illustrations for the book have been drawn out onto watercolour paper, outlined in pen and painted using my Royal Talens Van Gogh watercolours. These are then scanned, processed and formatted ready for print.
Here are some exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ photos. These were taken in the summer, so it felt quite incongruous to have Christmas frogs all over the place!
Website launch
Do you like what you see so far? I hope so! Want to own a copy?
The book is available to purchase from the official Frog’s Bucket List website.
I hope you enjoy the cute website. Creating it has been another branch of this froggy project and I’m really pleased with the result. Keep checking back though, as I’ve got other ideas. And also, as mentioned above, many more frog books to come!
Short but sweet
This post, that is. Although it applies to frogs too. It’s been a busy time, but I wanted to share the news and let you know where you can buy the book.
Hope you all enjoy the festive season and have a peaceful, relaxing time.
Take care and catch up soon!