How to Draw a Cute Frog on a Lily Pad — Easy Tutorial
Draw a cheerful, low-sitting frog with folded hind legs, small splayed feet, and a notched lily pad. Learn to explain a bend with simple contours and keep background lines behind the animal.
What you’ll learn: Build a broad frog silhouette with readable folded legs, clear foreground/background relationships, and feet resting on a lily pad.
Use a pencil and eraser on paper, or the drawing tools in the guided lesson. These public instructions and replays have no scoring.
Establish the frog’s broad shape
Draw a low, rounded central form with two raised eye shapes along its top edge. Keep the silhouette wide rather than tall.
Start at one upper side and draw the side and lower body in a few rounded arcs. Add a raised eye bump at each end of the top, then join their inner edges with a shallow forehead curve. Keep the lower body broad and leave generous room beside it for the folded legs and below it for the leaf. The eye bumps join the outline; they are not separate circles floating above it.
Why this works
Different animals need different starting shapes. The bunny and puppy used a head above a body. This frog begins with one low central mass. Its raised eye shapes are connected to that mass, so the silhouette already carries useful information. You can vary the width and eye-bump sizes while keeping the low pose. There is no need to force every animal into the same pair of circles.
Add the folded back legs
Build a folded hind leg on each side: curve out around a knee, turn inward at the ankle, and finish with a small foot pointing outward.
Begin at the side of the body. Curve outward around a soft knee, then change direction toward the lower body to narrow the leg at the ankle. From that turn, draw a low foot pointing outward with two or three simple toe tips; return its inner edge to the body. Add one short bent line inside the knee to explain the fold. Repeat on the other side. Stop the hidden leg edges at the central body, which stays in front.
Why this works
A frog’s back leg bends back on itself. For this drawing, think of three connected parts: a broad knee, a narrower inward turn, and a low foot. Their changing direction explains the bend more clearly than a circle with a mark inside it. Draw each part with a separate short action if that is easier. The body hides the inner attachments, so you do not need to invent extra connecting lines through it. The two sides can differ a little.
Add the front legs and feet
Add two short front limbs between the wider back feet. Let each limb end in a few small splayed toe shapes on the same resting surface.
Rub back and forth over the short lower body arc behind each planned front limb until that crossing line clears. Starting inside the body, draw down one side of a short limb, spread the end into a few soft pointed toe shapes, and return up the other side. Work through the toes in small actions rather than one long wavy line. Place this pair between the outward back feet. Their ends sit a little nearer to us, ready to rest on the leaf.
Why this works
The wide back legs and short front limbs do different jobs in the silhouette. Keeping the front pair between the rear feet makes the four limbs easy to count. Erasing the body edge where a front limb crosses it establishes which part is in front. The simple feet can be blunt or splayed; detailed toes are unnecessary. Slightly different heights are fine when all four feet can rest on the same flat surface.
Add the face and lily pad
Complete the eyes and mouth. Place a flattened, notched lily pad beneath the frog, keeping its outline behind the animal.
Place a small upright pupil inside each raised eye shape. Shade each with a few short pencil passes, leaving a tiny light fleck if you like, then add a broad shallow smile below. Start the leaf beside a back foot and curve around beneath all four feet in manageable arcs. Add one V-shaped notch in the near edge and continue around the other side. Leave the rear edge hidden behind the frog. Keep the feet inside the leaf area.
Why this works
An oval-like leaf looks flat when it is much wider than it is deep. You do not need to draw its entire outline if the frog hides part of it. A visible line through a foot would put the leaf in the wrong place. Stop at the animal, then resume the edge where it becomes visible again. The notch helps the simple supporting shape read as a lily pad.
Clarify contact and overlaps
Check that the frog rests on the leaf. Clear any conflicting intersections and add a small contact shadow only if it helps.
Follow the leaf edge and the leg attachments, clearing a crossing line only if you have one. The demonstration already leaves these edges stopped correctly. Add a few light, short pencil strokes directly below the front feet if you want more contact emphasis; lift the pencil between them. Two light leaf veins are optional. Leave the body largely white so the face and folded legs stay easy to read.
Why this works
Contact comes mainly from where the forms meet. A shadow can support that relationship, but it cannot repair a leaf drawn through the frog or feet floating above the surface. Make the shapes clear first. If you add tone, keep it small and close to the feet. You can finish with no shadow at all when the support and overlaps already read.
A few useful checks
- A round side shape alone can look like another body. Narrow it at the bend and connect it to a small outward foot so it reads as a folded leg.
- Stop the rear lily-pad edge where the frog hides it; do not draw a complete oval through the feet.
- Keep the two small front feet between the wider rear feet, with all of them resting within the leaf area.
Try a small change
Optional: change the calm face to a surprised expression by adjusting only the eyes and mouth. Keep the same body and supporting leaf.
You made a frog with a broad silhouette, folded back legs, and feet that rest on a surface. A few changes of direction and carefully stopped lines explain the whole pose.
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