Procreate Essentials: Paint a Blue Dart Frog

Block the blue dart frog’s form on toned blue paper using a blue palette across three layers—the leaf, the pattern, and the frog—and blend to establish base volumes.

Refine the base of the blue dart frog with the peppermint brush on layers, using a clippy mask to define anatomy from eyes to digits with darker and lighter areas.

Create irregular black spots on a clipping-mask layer for the blue frog, outlining first, varying spot sizes from back to legs, then blur edges and add blue shading.

Learn to build the blue dart frog's skin texture in Procreate by adding new layers, using blue tones, and defining spots and reflections.

Apply final details to the blue frog using a luminance light brush for highlights, refine edges with peppermint and HB pencils, then merge layers and prepare the background.

Duplicate the color palette and paint the background in Procreate using green tones and blue tones, charcoal and peppermint brushes, and blending to create shadows, highlights, and texture.

Refine the base with volume and light-dark balance, then apply details using a smaller brush. Add skin texture, eye reflections, and a leaf background to finish the blue dart frog.