8 Winter-Themed Watercolor Projects for Beginner
Discover beginner and intermediate-friendly projects through Skillshare classes that will spark your creativity and add a touch of winter magic to your artwork.
As the weather gets colder, one way to embrace the winter season is through watercolor painting. The cold, serene beauty of winter lends itself perfectly to watercolor projects, from snow-covered landscapes to delicate winter flora.
If you’re new to watercolor painting, you might want to check a few basic courses out to get a feel for the medium and tools:
- How to Watercolor Paint: A Beginner to Expert Guide
- Watercolor Paint Basics: What it Is and How to Use It
- Essential Watercolor Techniques for Every Artist
- How to Use Watercolor Pencils
- Watercolor Wet on Wet: What is Is and How to Do It
This post will guide you through winter-themed watercolor projects you can learn right here on Skillshare, whether you’re a complete beginner or have lots of watercolor experience.
1. Learn Watercolor Basics
Class: Anyone Can Watercolor: The Basics for Painting Magical Art Beginner Level by Yasmina Creates
About This Project: Yasmina teaches you the basics of watercolor, from essential supplies to magical techniques. She’ll walk you through mini projects in which you can practice individual techniques.
What You'll Make: Your project’s subject is largely up to you, though following along with Yasmina’s feather might be the optimal choice. You can easily give this a winter vibe by using blues and grays, and using techniques that suggest snow and sparkles.
Who Teaches It: Yasmina Mattson is an ink and watercolor artist and cheerleader for creativity. She strives to make her classes inspiring, information-rich and easy to follow, no matter your skill level. She’s even got her own step-by-step guide for drawing and coloring cute animals.
Why It’s Perfect for Winter: Because you can paint whatever you want, the theme is entirely up to you. Experiment with colors and textures in a snow covered scene, or bring in warm colors to paint a crackling winter fire.
2. Paint 30 Winter Landscapes
Class: 30 Day Watercolor Challenge: Learn to Paint 30 Easy Winter Landscapes by Zaneena Nabeel
About This Project: Zaneena teaches foundational, meditative watercolor skills over the course of 30 small, seasonal projects. You’ll learn to use different color palettes and textures to mimic the real world.
What You'll Make: You’ll walk away from this 30-day project with 30 original, beautiful winter scenes that you can give as gifts, make into cards or hang in your own home.
Who Teaches It: Zaneena Nabeel is an artist who believes everyone can indulge their desire to paint. She teaches that watercolor is less about the product and more about the process, which can be calming and even healing.
Why It’s Perfect for Winter: You can stretch this project out over the entire winter season by doing a few pieces every week. If you live in a snowy climate, take inspiration from the real world for interesting variety.
Learn 30 ways to paint watercolor winter landscapes
3. Paint 7 Festive Holiday Projects
Class: Winter Watercolor Illustration: 7 Festive Holiday Painting Projects by Garima Srivastava
About This Project: Garima teaches watercolor basics for holiday-specific painting in a manner suitable for beginners or seasoned painters. You’ll learn to paint wet on wet, wet on dry, and layers and finishing touches of white and gold. You’ll also get some color-mixing recipes.
What You'll Make: The seven projects include stylized Christmas trees, a winter wreath, ornaments, wrapped gifts, a dove, a car carrying an evergreen and a woodland cabin.
Who Teaches It: Garima Srivastava is an artist and illustrator living in The Netherlands. She thinks of art as therapy and stresses the importance of truly loving the process. Garima creates art for fashion, stationery and home decor.
Why It’s Perfect for Winter: No matter what holidays you celebrate in the winter, if any, you’ll be able to use the pieces you make here for gifts, cards or seasonal decorations. It’s a lovely way to bring some color to the darkest months of the year.
Paint 7 festive holiday watercolor projects
4. Create a Cozy Winter Scene
Class: Class Snowy Winter Watercolor Scene: Paint Step-by-Step, Exploring Atmospheric Color & Texture Techniques by Will Elliston
About This Project: Will teaches you his entire process, from gathering materials and supplies to sketching the scene to blending your colors in a realistic manner. By the end, you’ll be able to make corrections and add the perfect finishing touches.
What You'll Make: You’ll create a cozy wintertime scene of cabins, trees and people. While Will’s piece is relatively realistic, you have the freedom to make the scene however you want. This class works for beginners and those with more experience.
Who Teaches It: Will Elliston is an award-winning artist who takes inspiration from the world around him. He works to create paintings that evoke the emotions he feels when seeing these scenes in real life, and wants to help others explore their own creative talents through watercolor.
Why It’s Perfect for Winter: This project offers the classic winter subject of snow and rustic cabins, letting you paint a serene atmosphere, even on the coldest, darkest nights of the year.
Paint a cozy winter scene step-by-step
5. Paint Cute Dolls in a Snowy Scene
Class: Watercolor Cards for Beginners: Paint Cute Dolls in the Snow by Francoise Blayac
About This Project: Francoise teaches you to build on basic watercolor skills with simple shapes and a dreamy background. You can do this project with just a few colors and beginner portrait painting skills.
What You'll Make: You’ll end up with a folded holiday and winter-themed card featuring two cute characters out in the snow. The project contains elements of realism but tips into dreamy with a glowing background.
Who Teaches It: Francoise Blayac is a professional artist who loves to help painting enthusiasts refine skills of realism and dream-like qualities. Much of her work includes bits of nature blended with hints of whimsey.
Why It’s Perfect for Winter: If you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift or card, this is the right place. With the framework Francoise provides, you can add in your own style for a truly personal work of art.
Paint cute dolls in a snowy scene
6. Create Glowing Winter Skies
Class: Winter Lights: Paint Glowing Winter Skies With Watercolor by Elina Zhelyazkova
About This Project: Elina teaches you to capture the delicate beauty of winter by balancing minimal color with a rich glow. In particular, you’ll learn to balance colors to create realistic-looking snow and awe-inspiring skies.
What You'll Make: You’ll paint a winter scene beneath the glow of the northern lights. Elina will guide you from the pencil sketch stage all the way to painting each object and section of the piece.
Who Teaches It: Elina Zhelyazkova is a Bulgarian watercolor artist. She believes watercolor is a difficult craft to master, but that it’s totally worth it to try, and so focuses on offering beginner-friendly classes.
Why It’s Perfect for Winter: Winter is often thought of as gloomy and colorless, but this project demands a closer look at the many colors in snow and the winter sky.
7. Paint Joyful Holiday Cards
Class: Watercolor Holiday Cards - Create Joyful Mail Art by Irina Trzaskos
About This Project: Irina teaches you to add color to simple, joyful holiday templates with watercolor and gouache (watercolor with white pigment added). You absolutely have the freedom to add your own details and flourishes to the templates.
What You'll Make: You’ll end up with a set of three fun holiday cards made with watercolor and gouache techniques. The templates feature a swan, a gingerbread house and the word “Noel” with delicate embellishments of leaves, berries and stars.
Who Teaches It: Irena Trzaskos is a watercolor artist and illustrator. She teaches this class as a fun, accessible way to create holiday gifts for your loved ones, and suggests using the provided templates to keep it simple.
Why It’s Perfect for Winter: Whether you’re looking for a fun holiday craft or something you can create relatively quickly to give as a gift, these cards are ideal for beginners and seasoned painters alike.
8. Paint Two Winter Penguins
Class: Winter Penguins: A Freeflow Watercolor Masterclass by Jane Davies
About This Project: Jane teaches you her self-taught method of wet on wet wildlife watercolor painting. Her style doesn’t use brushstrokes, but dots color onto the wet surface for a soft, magical effect.
What You'll Make: You’ll create a wintery scene featuring two companion walking penguins. By sectioning off the work and learning the tweaks to bring it all together, you’ll turn simple techniques and a small palette.
Who Teaches It: Jane Davies is a self-taught professional artist and teacher who specializes in pet portraits and wildlife. She has her own unique style, and enjoys teaching it to others, watching them discover their potential in the studio.
Why It’s Perfect for Winter: This project works well for the winter season, no matter where you live or how you celebrate. There’s space to add your own festive embellishments if you wish, or frame the piece to give as a gift.
Embrace Winter Vibes with Watercolor Magic
No matter where you live or how you feel about the season, you can embrace winter’s beauty through watercolor painting. Winter provides unique inspiration for artists with soft textures, muted colors and peaceful landscapes.
Take time to explore the Skillshare classes mentioned here to start your own winter watercolor journey, improving your skills while enjoying the creative process. Happy painting!
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Katie Mitchell
Katie lives in Michigan with her husband, kids and pets. She enjoys cooking, travel and live music.
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