Snow Globe Pet Portrait in Watercolor

1. Introduction: Learn how to paint a cute and whimsical snow globe pet portrait in watercolor. In this class, you'll learn all the essential techniques for creating a fun pet portrait. This course is perfect for beginners and intermediate artists who want to learn how to paint a unique and memorable pet portrait. I'm Marisa Marquez, an artist and illustrator. I paint a lot of pet portraits and landscape watercolor paintings. I live in Colorado with my husband and two dogs. We spend a lot of time outdoors, skiing and hiking. In this class, we'll be painting a golden retriever and a wintry snow globe. This project was inspired by an especially wintry day when I was walking my dogs in the woods. The snow was coming down in big fluffy flakes, and it felt like we were in a snow globe. That walk inspired a series of snow Globe pet portraits. I'll guide you through the process, starting with transferring a basic outline onto your paper. Then we'll build layers of watercolor to bring the background and the golden retriever to life. Finally, we'll add snow to finish our wintry scene. I hope you'll join me in painting a snow globe pet portrait. 2. Supplies: Let's go for materials that you'll use in this project. First, you need paper. There's a variety of different brands of watercolor paper out there and each has their own pros and cons. It's usually a balance of quality and price. I use a lot of watery layers, so make sure the paper is at least 140 pounds to minimize the buckling. I use the Canson Excel for the demo painting. You can use a watercolor block such as the Windsor Newton block or Arches. If you aren't using a block, I like to tape down my paper so I can move it around. These are some of the brands I've used in previous pet portraits. For this project, I'm going to use a piece of fabriano studio watercolor paper. It's cold press and 140 pounds. I'm going to cut it down to nine by 12 " and tape it to a board. I've swatched the paint colors we'll be using. You don't have to use these exact colors. I've listed the colors and brands I use and some alternatives in the resources. For this project, I use indigo, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, burnt sienna, buff titanium, lemon yellow and quinacridone rose. We'll be painting a golden retriever, so we'll need a couple browns. But if you don't have the specific ones I listed, I wanted to show you some options. You can use a premixed brown like Vandyke brown. You can also use a burnt umber plus ultramarine blue to create a brown. If you add a little more ultramarine blue, you can also create a black, which we'll use for the eyes and nose. For the trees, I used a lemon yellow and an ultramarine blue. Adding just a touch of ultramarine blue to the lemon yellow creates a lighter green. I'll add more ultramarine blue to create a darker shade of green to use for the trees. Instead of indigo, you can also use a darker blue or pains gray. Instead of buff titanium, you can use a water down version of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, or quinacridone gold to mimic the buff titanium. I'm using watercolor in tubes, but you can also use pans. You'll also need a palette to mix your colors. You'll need three or four different size brushes, basically a small, medium, and large brush. I'm using a size two and a six. These are as good a brushes. You'll also need a larger brush, roughly a size six, eight or ten for the background. I'm using a size six simply Simmons brush for the background. The sizes of brands do vary by companies. So I'd recommend using a size zero or two small brush that has a nice point for the small details. I use the six for the fur and trees and a bigger brush to create the background. I also use doctor PH Martin's bleed proof white for the snow on the trees and the snowflakes. You can also use white gash for the snow. I do like to use cheaper brushes for this part of the painting. I use a bigger brush to create the splatter and a small one for the snow on the trees. You'll also need a pencil and eraser, a paper towel for removing excess water from your brushes, masking tape or painter's tape to tape your painting onto a board if you're not using a block. A big jar of water. I also like to use a scrap piece of watercolor paper to test out my colors. For more details, I'll also use colored pencils, but I'll review that in a later video. Gather your materials and let's get started. 3. Getting Started: Here's the painting we'll be creating. This painting will be done in several layers. We'll paint the background, the dog, the trees, the base of the snow globe, and then add the snow. I created an outline for you to use. I'll go over a few different methods you can use to transfer the image. We use a wet on wet technique and your paper might buckle a bit. If it does, you can flatten the paper after the painting is finished. If you have a light box or tracing paper, you can use that to transfer the drawing. If you don't have either of those, you can rub a pencil over the back of the outline and then flip it over and trace the lines onto your watercolor paper. You'll want to use a pencil with a soft lead like a two B, but the softer the lead, the better. This one is a three B. I'm going to mark the key areas. Put a white sheet of paper behind the outline so you can see the lines better. I'm going to rub the pencil lead over the outline. Make sure the outline is centered. I'll use a pencil to loosely check that it's even on both sides. I'll tape the outline to the watercolor paper so I can lift it and make sure it's transferring okay and the paper stays in place. I'm going to start with a dog. I switch to a mechanical pencil. Press down firmly as you trace over the outline. I'll lift the paper to make sure it's transferring okay and I'm using the right amount of pressure. Make sure you lift often and check your work. You want to make sure you're pressing down hard enough to see the line, but not too hard that you're indenting the watercolor paper. You're going to create the fur effect in watercolor, so you're really just making sure you have the right proportions. For the highlight reflection, you can simplify this part and just create a rectangle instead of the four squares or make it one shape. Now for the bottom of the snow globe, you want to flatten the bottom. It's not a perfect circle because the snow globe sits on the base. Oh you can trace the globe, but I also used a bowl to create a continuous line. You can use a bowler plate that's about 7.5 " wide. It doesn't have to be perfect. Close is fine. Now we raise any extra lines. I'll go back in and darken some of the lines. I want to make sure we don't lose some of the details. One more thing we need to add is the base of the snow. Alright, there's our drawing, and now we're ready to start painting. 4. Painting the Background: Before you start painting, let's make sure the drawing is how you want it. I decided to simplify the reflection on the right and make it one shape. I also like to tape down my watercolor paper onto a board. You can use a piece of cardboard too. I'm using painter's tape. You can also use masking tape or washi tape. If it's pretty sticky, you can stick it on your clothes once before taping it onto your paper. This will help when you're removing the tape so it doesn't tear your paper. Having it on a board helps to be able to move your painting around easily. We're going to start by painting the blue background. One thing to note is that the area behind the dog is a lot lighter. We'll use a wadded up piece of paper towel to lift some of the color when we're painting the background. If you're using pans or if your tube paints have dried up, I'll miss the palette with water. Take a size six or eight brush and load your brush with clean water. We'll take our brush and apply the water around the dog and trees. We'll carefully add the water around the highlights and the edge of the snow globe. We'll use a wet on wet technique so the blue background flows easily. Tilt your paper around, and if there are any excess wet areas, you can move the water around with your brush. I'm going to use ultramarine blue and make it nice and watery. I'll test it on my scrap piece of paper. Now, I'll carefully paint around the highlights and edges of the globe. One of the reasons we wet the paper beforehand is so that the watercolor won't dry so quickly. I'll turn the board so I can paint some areas more easily, like the curve of the highlights. If the paper starts to dry, I'll go over that area with a watery mix of ultramarine. Paint all the way to the bottom of the globe. As I start to get closer to the dog, we'll use a more watery mix. I'll take the dry paper towel and da up the area around the dog. Now I'll go back in with the ultramarine blue and blend the area. Now take clean water and we'll soften the edges around the trees. You'll do this while the paper is still wet. Now we'll take some of the indigo and outline the edges of the snow globe. I'll start at the top and carefully paint around while the paper is still wet. We'll paint around the highlights so it'll stand out more. Again, I'm turning my board around, so the angle is a little easier for me to paint. Before it dries, I'll take the ultramarine blue and blend the color. You'll want to create a darker area so the snow will stand out more. Now we'll do the same to the right side. As you go lower, you'll make it lighter by using a more watery mix. Y. Finally, take a clean brush and soften the hard edges. That looks good. Let it dry slightly, and we can move on to the next step. I'm going to wet the palette. Here we're going to use a dark brown that I made using burnt umber and ultramarine blue. Test that on your scrap paper. H. To mimic the wood grain, we'll add lines following the curve of the base. We'll also paint underneath the bottom of the globe. Okay. Using the side of my brush, I'm going to run it across the paper and let the texture of the cold press paper come through. A lot of this will be covered with another layer, but it'll create more depth to your painting. Now I'll paint the bottom of the base and I'm going to flip it around so it's easier for me to paint. I'll use burnt sienna to create more wood grains. I'm going to shade in the edges. Remember, this is just the first layer. Here's the demo painting again so you can see how the finished base looks. 5. First Layer of the Golden Retriever and Trees: Now we'll work on the first layer of the golden retriever. I have the reference in front of me so I can keep an eye on that. I'm going to use my size six brush and paint the lighter fur. I'm using buff titanium by Daniel Smith. If you don't have this color, you can use a diluted version of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, or CacidoneGld. Just make sure to use a lot of water to make it very light and diluted. Test the color on your scrap piece of paper. I'll start with the muzzle area. Then the top of the head and rest of the face. She's got a lot of nice tufts of fur. Try to paint in strokes that mimic the direction the fur is going in. Most of this will get painted over, but doing this will give the fur more definition. Okay. Next, I'll work on the tail and pause using short brush strokes. I'll go over some of the first strokes to make the area a little darker. While that's drying, I'm going to paint some of the snowy area. I'm going to use indigo and make it very dilute by adding more water and testing on my sheet. I'm going to add the black I created earlier using the ultramarine blue and Burt umber until I get a nice gray. You can also use Paine's gray if you have. I'll paint the shadows underneath the dog and create little snowy banks. I'll paint a line here where the glass meets the snow at the bottom. Now I'll take a clean brush with a little water to soften the edges. A Don't worry if it seems dark. It will dry lighter and will also cover a lot of this area with white paint. Now we'll work on the trees. I'll take my mixture of ultramarine blue and lemon yellow. It's a little dark, so I'll add a little more lemon yellow and make it a little more watery. This is just the first layer. I'll paint a line down the middle and run my brush back and forth to create the branches. Be a little careful around the dog. I'll work on the other side, moving my brush back and forth. I Now we'll go back and create a darker green by adding more ultramarine blue. Keep testing the color until you get a green shade that you like. I'll go back and add a little more detail. I'm dabbing the brush to create more branches. Most of these branches are going to be covered in snow so you don't have to be too careful. O. As I get lower on the tree, I'll start to point the branches downward. I'll add more details by painting a few pie needles that stick out a bit. Now we'll work on the second tree. I'll paint a line down the middle again. I'm dragging my brush to create rough branches. Again, towards the bottom, I'll drag my brush downward. I'll add a little more of my black mix to make a darker shade of green and add that to the bottom and some small dark branches to give the tree more definition. We'll add a few strokes to the other tree, too. While that's drying, we'll continue to work on the base. We'll paint a darker line underneath the globe and at the base. We'll create a dark brown using ultramarine blue and burnt umber. I'll dilute that a little more and make it a little darker by adding burnt umber. We'll outline the edges with the same color. For the bottom of the base, I'll turn the paper upside down to make it easier to paint that curve. A now I'm going to switch to a bigger brush and paint the rest of the base. I'm going to soften the edges of the lines I just painted. Now, bring in the paint from the outside edge toward the middle. I'll do the same to the other side and paint over the base. While the paint is still wet, I'll add a couple more dark lines for the wood grain. I'll create more of the dark brown mix. I'll go over some of the lines we created earlier. I'll keep adding thin lines following the curve of the base. I'm going to add a little shiny area on the left side. So I'll add lines to the left and right of this spot. I'll add a few more lines of burnt sienna. Now I can clean my brush and blend the colors together. A I'll grab my paper towel and dab that area to create that shine. I'll take the burnt umber to darken the area around the shine. I'll add it to the other side. Now we'll glaze the rest of the base with the burnt umber. Rinse and clean the brush and then soften the edge of the sheen. 6. Second Layer of the Golden Retriever: Now we'll work on our golden retriever's features. We'll use the burnt sienna. Make sure to test on the scrap paper. I'm adding a little bit of brown to make it more of an orange brown. I'll start on the face and remember to apply your brush strokes in the same direction as the fur. I'm painting around the eyes and the ears. I'll dilute the color, dab it on the paper towel to remove excess water, and paint around the muzzle. I'll add a touch of ccadon rose to create a peachy color to use around the muzzle. Y. Now I'll paint the other ear. I'm going to paint the patches of fur. Look at the reference photo and follow the direction of the fur. I'm going to add more paint and fill in the darker areas. Okay. I'm also leaving some gaps between brushstrokes, so our first light layer shows through. Okay. Now, I'm rinsing my brush with plain water, and I'm going to soften some of these edges. 7. Painting the Snowy Trees: While that's drying, we'll paint the snow on the trees. I'm going to use doctor PH Martin's bleed proof white. You can also use whitewash. I'm going to add the bleed proof white to a small dish and add a little water to make it more fluid. I'm also using my other mid size brush. I'm dabbing the paint along the tree branches to create snow. I This looks a little too uniform, so I'm going to vary some of the snow shapes around the tree to give it more variety. Now I'll go to the other side and add the snow to the branches. At this time, I'm going to add big dabs of white along the ground to create mounds of snow. Now I'll add details to the dog. I'm using my smaller size zero brush. I'm going to use the black mix of ultramarine blue and burn Humper. Add a little water so it's a light gray. Remove any excess water and we'll paint the nose and her mouth and chin. We'll create a more watery mix and paint the area under her nose. A Now we'll make a thicker blend, dab the brush on the paper towel. We'll carefully paint the line above the eye and lightly fill in the eye. We'll do the same to the other eye. Paint the line over the eye and fill in the inside. Now with clean water, we'll soften the area under the nose and muscle. We're going to add another layer of fur. We want this layer to be a little darker, so we're going to mix a dark orangy brown. I've switched back to my size six brush, and I've also got a new scrap piece of paper. We'll mix the burnt sienna with a little ultramarine blue. That's a little dark. Here's a regular Burnt sienna. I'll add more Burnt sienna. That's better. I'll remove some of the excess water. I'll start with the left ear painting in the direction of the fur. I'll paint the side of the face. I'll rinse the brush and blend that area. I'll work on the other side and add more paint to my brush. I'll paint the ears and create the edge next to her cheek. Y. With a clean brush, I'll soften the edges. Now I'll reload my brush with paint. I'm looking at the reference photo. I'll paint in the patches of fur. I'm using some longer strokes painting in the direction of the fur. She has darker fur underneath her chin. I'll keep layering short brush jokes for these fur patches around her body. S. I'll paint the paws and darken the legs. Now I'll rinse my brush and soften some of the areas under her chin. So we'll let that dry. 8. Painting More Details: Now we'll work on more details. I'll spray my watercolor palett. We'll work on some of the details on the nose. I'm going to use my smaller brush and makes a nice dark brown. Now, we'll carefully paint a line around the eye. And outline the other eye. We'll add highlights to bring out the details in the eyes in another layer. Now, we'll fill in the nose and outline her mouth. A We'll work on the darker fur areas using a darker brown. We'll start underneath the chin. We'll add more dark brown on her cheek and under her mouth. We can go back and add some definition above the eye and the forehead. And the years. I'll water that down and soften the brush strokes on her forehead. Again, following the shape of her face. We'll continue to soften the fur of the ears. Now, we'll darken the other ear. I'll add a darker brown to the right ear, too. A I'll add some dark lines above her face, forehead, and side of the nose and face. Take a clean brush and soften all those edges. I'll add a little more colour to the bottom of her mouth. I'll create a darker brown and dab some paint under her nose. I'll add a few more fur details with the darker shade. There's a lot of darker fur since this area is in shadow. A I'm going to paint the top of the tail and blend that with clean water to soften it. I'll add some more detail to the paw and front leg. Well, let that dry a bit. I want to mix a reddish brown color using the cacodone red and burnt sienna. I'll add a few more details. I'll add this color above her eye and side of her face. I'll add a little more to her ears next to her face. I'll add some of this red below her chin to define it more. It's a little dark. I'll dab my brush on the paper towel to remove the excess paint and soften the mark I just made. I'll add some pops of this reddish brown around the fur. I'll find some of the areas I want to accentuate like her tail and the boundaries between her front legs and body. I'll take the dark brown and paint in the nostrils and mouth. I'll go in with a clean brush and soften some of the dark lines. I want to add a little definition in her forehead. We're almost finished. 9. Final Details with Colored Pencils: You can take a white colored pencil, a white gel pen or use the bleed proof white or guash and a brush to add some white highlights to the eyes and nose. I'm going to add even more details to the fur using colored pencils. We'll start by taking a white colored pencil, adding a highlight to the dog's pupil and around the eye. I'll soften the white around the eye with a gray pencil. Now I'll take the brown and color around her eye. I'm using a yellow pencil and a lightly shade below the eye. I'll press harder to create a fur texture over the ear. I'll add a few strokes to the other side of her face. I'm taking a lighter yellow and creating a few fur strokes around her face. The lighter pencils will show up better on the darker areas. I'll add a little orange to her ear. I'm going to take a light orange color and add some fur texture to the littus areas. Again, how far you want to take this is up to you. I'm going to continue adding some more fur details. I lost some of the color in the tail, so I'll add a lighter shade. You can emphasize more of the dark areas, too. Remember to apply the pencil strokes in the direction of the fur. It'll make your dog look more realistic. I'm taking various shades of brown red and gold to create more fur texture. Okay. Finally, I'll take a black pencil and outline her nose and nostrils. And add a little more definition to her mouth and chin. I'll shade in the part under her nose, too. I'll take the light yellow and add a few small strokes around her mouth and chin. I'll highlight the area under her nostrils and top of the nose. I want to bring back a little more detail on the eye. I'm grabbing my black pencil again. Make sure you have a very sharp point on your pencil. And adding a little gray underneath her eye. I'm going to shade in a little more under her face. I'm going to add a few highlights around her ears. I'll soften the edge between her muzzle and ear and under her chin. All right, we're finished with the extra details on our dog. 10. Creating the Snowflakes: I'm going to finish by adding some final details with a gel pen and black micron. I'm going to darken those nostrils, the eyes and pupils. For the white gel pen, I'm going to add a couple lines on the ear and add some whiskers. I'll add some more highlights on the ear. And a spot on her nose. Now we'll add the snow splatter. The next part is going to be a little messy and we're going to splatter some white paint for the snow. I'm going to take our outline and cut around to create a template. We'll also cut out the outline of the dog to create a mask. We're going to cut out the globe shape. So I have a template that just reveals the globe part of our snow globe. I'm going to tape the area near the edge here. Now we'll loosely cut out the outline of our dog. I use a different cheaper brush for the splattering. We'll take two brushes and we'll tap one against the other to splatter the paint onto our snow globe. This can get messy, so I'm taking some craft paper to protect the work area behind my painting. Now I'm going to take my mask to cover everything except for the globe, and I'll cover the golden retriever. I'm taking the bleed proof white and adding it into the dish. It's really pretty thick, so I'm going to water it down and mix it so it has a smooth consistency and more fluid. You don't want it chunky. So you'll hold one brush in one hand and tap the other brush over your painting. This is giving us some small flakes. I'm going to add a little more water to make bigger splatters. Now I'm going to take off the mask over the dog and add a few more splitters. Keep going until you're happy with the amount of snow. I'll remove the mask and see how it looks overall. I'll take my same brush and dab it in some areas where I want to add bigger snowflakes. I'll add a couple snowflakes to face. And I'll add a little more snow to the ground. I think we're good for the snow now. Once everything is dry, I'm going to touch up the eye with my black colored pencil. And use the white pen to bring that sparkle back. A Now, grab a pen and sign your name. You can sign it wherever you want. I'm going to sign at the bottom of the base. Now, let's pull off the tape. Be careful and pull off the tape slowly, and at an angle so it doesn't tear your paper. There you go. There's our golden retriever in the Snow globe. 11. Final Thoughts: Thank you for watching this class. I hope you had fun creating a snow globe pet portrait. Try using your own pet or other animals. Try a different background like a mountain scene or other types of trees. I would love to see your paintings, so please post them under projects. If you have any feedback or comments, please reach out under discussions. Thanks again and happy painting.