Alright, let’s talk about how I ended up messing around with the TCU Horned Frog mascot. It’s kinda a funny story, actually.
So, I was bored one weekend, just scrolling through the internet, and I stumbled upon some article talking about the origins of college mascots. Then I remembered TCU’s mascot: the Horned Frog. I thought, “Huh, that’s kinda random, isn’t it?”. So I started digging around. Turns out, back in the day, the TCU football field in Thorp Spring was apparently swarming with these little horned lizards. The yearbook staff needed a name, BAM! Horned Frogs it was. Seemed like as good a reason as any.
That got me thinking, “Could I make something cool with that?”. I’m not a designer or anything, but I do like to tinker.
First thing I did, I jumped onto Google Images. I searched for every image I could find of the TCU Horned Frog. Different angles, different styles, you name it. I wanted to get a real feel for the thing. What makes it recognizable? The horns? The squat body? That weird grumpy look on its face?
Next, I fired up my ancient drawing tablet. I’m talking old school Wacom Bamboo here. I started sketching. Terrible, terrible sketches. I mean, these things looked like mutated potatoes with spikes. But I kept at it. I tried different poses, different expressions, different levels of detail. I even tried to make a “cool” version with sunglasses. It was a disaster.
After a few hours of sketching, I finally had something that wasn’t completely embarrassing. It was a stylized, cartoonish Horned Frog, kinda like a chibi version. I scanned the sketch and imported it into my ancient Photoshop. Yeah, I’m still rocking an old version. Don’t judge me.
Then came the real work: cleaning up the lines, adding color, shading. I messed around with the colors a lot. Do I go with the traditional purple? Do I try something more realistic? I ended up somewhere in the middle, a slightly desaturated purple with some subtle green highlights.
I spent a couple of days tweaking it, fixing little things, adding details. I even threw in a little football helmet for good measure. Finally, I had something I was reasonably happy with. It wasn’t going to win any awards, but it was definitely a Horned Frog.
I ended up printing it out and sticking it on my fridge. It’s still there. Every time I see it, it reminds me of that silly weekend I spent obsessing over a college mascot. Was it a productive use of my time? Probably not. Was it fun? Absolutely.
And that’s the story of my TCU Horned Frog mascot adventure. Just a little bit of tinkering and a whole lot of fun. Maybe I’ll try another mascot sometime. Who knows?
