10 Minute Art: Easy Watercolor Snow Globe Illustration for Beginners

1. Introduction: We can all agree there's something really magical about snow globes. These tiny winter wonderlands captured inside glass are like holding a piece of the season in your hands. So imagine creating your own magical, snowy scene using watercolors. Hi there, creative. I'm Shannon and I love turning simple ideas into creative projects that anyone can enjoy. In this short class, I'll show you how to paint a wintry snow globe using a few easy watercolor techniques. We'll start with a quick sketch. Then use techniques like wet on dry and the dry Bush technique to create our scene. Also show you how to add those special details like salt and splatters that will make your snow globe truly one of a kind. This class is perfect for anyone who loves watercolors and wants to create a fun, charming little illustration that can be incorporated into gift ties and holiday cards. All you need are basic watercolor and sketching supplies and a circular object to get started. So let's dive in and paint a little bit of Minter magic together. 2. Sketching and Supplies: Here is a list of all the supplies that you'll need to paint this snow globe, a pencil eraser and a circular object. Watercolor paper that is 300 GSM or 140 pounds. Watercolor paint, a few shades of blue, and a few shades of brown, two paint brushes, one large round brush, and a smaller liner or round brush for details. Some salt, some white acrylic paint or guash paint. And I'll be showing you how to sketch the snow globe from scratch, but I've also shared my sketch in the project section if you'd prefer to use that. Now we're going to start drawing our snow globe. Use your pencil and the circle object to sketch a circle onto your watercolor paper. Then towards the bottom of the circle, you're going to draw a very small rectangle. Underneath that, you're going to draw a larger rectangle that is a little bit thicker. At the bottom, you're going to draw two slightly curved lines to form the base of the snow globe. Then you're going to erase the overlapping lines. Then add a few curved rectangle shapes for the reflection of the snow globe. And finally, you're going to draw in a wavy line that represents the snow and it separates the snow from the sky. 3. Painting the Snow Globe: Once you finish sketching your design, it's now time to start painting. So you're going to use two to three shades of blue to paint the sky inside of the globe. Make sure to paint around the highlight areas so that they remain white. And as you paint, you want to pay attention to how the paint is drying. As I got towards the middle of my snow globe, I noticed that my paint was starting to dry. So this is a point where you want to add your salt. So I grab my salt and I'm going to sprinkle it over that area while it is damp. The salt will absorb the paint from those areas where it was placed and create a fun, frosty texture once it has dried. Depending on the size of your globe and the quality of your paper, you may be able to paint the entire thing and then sprinkle on your salt, but it's totally fine to work in sections as well. While the sky is drying, we're going to use a light brown color to paint the base of the snow blue. Allow that first layer to dry and then use your smaller brush to add a darker shade of brown to one side of the first piece of wood. Clean your brush and then use that brush to blend the darker color into the lighter one. You're also going to add a small amount of that darker color on the top, the bottom, and the opposite side of that section you're working on. And then lightly blend it into the lighter color so that the middle is a light brown with the edges being the darker brown. While that top piece of wood is drying, you can repeat those same steps to paint the other two pieces. Work on the one at the bottom first to make sure that the one at the top has some time to dry so that you don't run into any bleeding. Of course, you can use a heat gun or a blow dryer to help speed up the process along the way. And you're going to allow that second layer of brown to dry. Then use a darker shade and add a few lines of texture on the left and the right side of each section using a dry brush technique. Before you move on, you want to make sure that your sky is completely dry and then brush away the salt. Using a very small amount of, like, blue, you're going to paint a few shadow areas in the snow on the ground. I'm applying this randomly and very lightly. Next, you can use your white paint to splatter some stars across the sky. The final thing we have to add to this snow globe are some trees. So once you're finished with the splatters, switch to a smaller brush and use a few different shades of dark blue to add some very small trees in the background. And to paint a tree, you're simply going to draw a vertical line, then paint some short strokes in a left to right motion, starting small at the top of the line, then gradually getting longer towards the bottom. We're also going to create a few darker, larger trees in the foreground using the same technique. Now, to make this feel connected, you can use some of your white paint to add some snow on the branches using the same type of strokes that you used to create the trees. This gives the effect of the clumps of snow falling on the branches and just makes the piece more cohesive. And to further bring everything together, you're going to splatter a few more stars across the sky and the trees. I also added a bit more light blue underneath the trees in the snow to create more shadowing. Then you can add a few more highlights to the globe, as well as to the wooden base using white and your smaller brush. 4. Wrap Up: And that is it for this wintry snow Globe class. I can't wait to see how yours turned out. So head to the project and resources section to share your work. If you share your artwork on Instagram, feel free to tag me at Bay Shannon Lane. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'll see you in the next class.