Easy Watercolor Gingerbread House Illustration for Beginners

1. Introduction: There's nothing more festive than a gingerbread house, the candy accents, the festive colors, the sweet little details that feel like stepping right into the holiday season. 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 delightful gingerbread house using a few easy watercolor techniques. You start from choosing one of the gingerbread house sketches in the project and resources section of this class. Once your sketch is ready, we'll explore negative space painting and soft shadowing techniques to make our gingerbread house stand out. I'll also walk you through adding simple finishing touches that bring the whole illustration to life. This class is perfect for anyone who loves watercolor and wants to create a sweet holiday illustration that can be incorporated into gift tags and holiday cards. And all you need to get started are basic watercolor painting supplies. So let's dive in and paint a deliciously festive gingerbread house together. 2. Warm up Exercises: Before we dive right into painting our gingerbread house, I want to share the main techniques that we will be using in this painting. So the first one is going to be a negative space painting where we paint outside of the shape rather than filling the color inside. Now, you can draw a simple shape on a piece of paper. This can be a circle, a heart, and then you're going to use your paint brush and the color of your choice to outline that shape. Try not to let your paint go on the inside and really take your time. The second technique is going to be how we paint our shadows. So I have this circle, and I'm using blue to add a shadow to one side of this. Then I'm going to clean my brush, and with a little bit of clean water still in the brush, I'm going to drag it along the outer edge of that light. What we're going for is for a smooth transition from your blue that fades into the background rather than having a harsh line. So sometimes you will have to clean your brush and keep lifting color from the paper until the transition is smoothened out. 3. Painting the Gingerbread House: In this lesson, we are going to be adding in the brown part of our gingerbread house and then focus on the details in the rest of the class. So we're using the negative painting technique that we did in the previous warm up lesson where we are painting in the gingerbread house, but leaving the icing section white. Now, of course, you could use masking fluid and mask out the areas you want to remain white. But I also think that it is a lot more fun and organic to just do this using a negative painting technique. So you're basically going to be outlining each of these sections like the candy on the house, the windows and the doors, and filling in the space on the outside of these elements. And as you are adding this paint, you can paint the entire thing in this solid brown color, or you can add some water to just create a little bit of variation and texture. H Once we're finished, I will see you next lesson where we start adding some details to our windows. 4. Painting the Windows: In this lesson, we're using that same negative space painting technique to fill in the windows with blue. Now, you can use any color that you want. I just like how the blue will contrast with the warmer brown. And as you're painting, take your time so that you don't paint in too much of the white Once your mendous are complete, I'll see you in the next lesson where we can start adding our candy. 5. Painting the Candy: Now we're going to paint our candy, and for this lesson, you can use whatever colors you want. I am starting with red for my gum balls and then adding that color to the candy canes at the side of the house and the pinwheel candy. So feel free to alternate whatever colors you want and to experiment with how you add in these colors. When you're finished painting in the candy, I'll see you in the next lesson where we look at how to add some shadows to these candies to make them look three dimensional. 6. Adding Shadows: In this lesson, we're now going to add some shadows to our gingerbread house to just build up the dimension. And I'm starting with a darker brown and a smaller brush, and I'm going to paint a line of color on the bottom and the right of each of these elements that are on the brown part of my gingerbread house. Then you're going to clean your brush and use clean water to lightly blend that harsh edge into the background. Before we add shadows to the candy, I want to add a little bit of shadowing to the white areas, and I'm using a very light diluted gray. We don't want it to overpower anything, but we do want it to be a little bit more of a contrast versus just being a solid white space for the icing. You're going to be adding this gray on the same shadow side that you've been using for the other shadows so far. So for me, that is the right and the bottom, it is very much random. You don't have to try to hit all of the spots. You just want enough to insinuate that the light is hitting this in and causing some shadows to form. Starting with the candy cane, I am using a dark red, and I'm adding a line on the right and the bottom of each of these red sections. I'm also going to add the shadow to the gumbo candy on the roof and by the door and the windows and also to the pinwheel candy on the gingerbread house as well. And for the other candy, use darker shades of those colors to add a similar line to the bottom of those as well. When it comes to adding shadows on the window, this is going to be a little bit different because the icon is on top of the window pane and will be casting the shadow on the window. So rather than it being on the bottom, right, these shadows will be on the upper left of each window pane to create the illusion that the sin is on top and cast in that shadow. Your shadows are complete. I'll see you in the next lesson where we add some highlights to tie everything together. 7. Adding Highlights: The final step to pull everything together and really make this pop is to add white highlights. So use a white gel pen or paint pen or some acrylic paint or guash, any opaque white medium to just add a thin line in the upper left corner to each of these pieces of candy. You can also use this opaque white to add any other details and any other areas where you want to add more icin to just bring everything together. For me, that is adding a pattern on the door and to the chimney, using some diagonal lines, and also to add some dots all across the gingerbread house to fill in some of that negative space that we have. You can also add some of that gray to the bottom of this to add shadowing to the snowy part at the bottom of the painting. And that is pretty much it for my gingerbread host. So once you're finished adding your white details, I'll see you in the next lesson. Oh 8. Wrap up: And that is it for your gingerbread house painting. I can't wait to see how yours turned out, so head to the projects and resources section of this class to share it. I'd also appreciate it if you could leave a review sharing your thoughts on the class so that others who may be interested in a quick, beginner friendly watercolor class would know what to expect. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I'll see you in the next class.