Snow In Watercolor, Create A Magical Winter Scene

1. Welcome to the class!: Hi guys! It's wintertime, the time of snow falls, cold days, Christmas trees, cozy nooks at home and the time for artists to paint a winter scenery. In this class you will create an inspiring winter scenery. The lessons are for all levels. The format of the cards is small, 105 by 148 mm or 4 by 6 " - which makes it easier for beginners to control the watercolors. The card will have a neatwhite frame. Use a bit of tape to adjust the paper on a piece of a firm cardboard like those you have in your watercolor paper blocks or on a painting board. I will guide you through all the process step-by-step. The subject is easy to draw yourself or you can find a stencil in the attachment of the class. You will create a smooth evening background with light in it. Learn to control the amount of water in your paint and the most exciting part - to paint the snow without any paint or white gouache. This is my most favorite and relaxing technique. Finally, adding the details for our magical winter illustration and final touches are most satisfying! This painting you can use as a wishing card, a small painting to be framed, or even a bullet journal decoration. Would you like to make a gift for somebody? Join the class and let's get started. 2. Get started: materials, making the cards, tips for drawing: So let's get started and talk a little about the materials. You will need a ruler to define the frame of the card. A soft pencil, it's easy to erase soft pencil lines after the painting is ready. An eraser and a kneading eraser. You can use watercolor postcards. I have one here from Winsor & Newton, and another one from Fabriano. You may use your favorite paper brand. Or you can use paper from a paper block and cut it in the size you need. A water jar A ceramic palette or a plate. The surface is smooth and perfect tool watercolors. A white gel pen or a fine white acrylic marker. Watercolor brushes. A wash brush is nice for moistening the paper. Some round brushes. About this, I'd like to tell more. This one is a liner brush or a rigger brush - it is a very fine round brush with a long point, ideal for painting the tree branches or long thin lines. Filbert brushes are flat with round edges. Oh look, one brush is quite old. You see it on the filament. In this lesson, we will paint the snow with them. I use them quite a lot, for e.g. for softening the edges when the painting is dry. Small set of watercolors is just good enough. Pans or tubes. And quite a lot of paper tissues - Very handy while painting watercolors. If you use a bigger paper, Let's cut the cards together. The surface of the paper I use is 21 cm by 29.7 cm or 8.27 by 11.69 ". The cards will have a white frame of 3 mm or 0.12 ". With a masking tape adjust the cards on a piece of firm cardboard like what you find in the back of your watercolor paper block. You can also use a painting board. The easiest way to trace the stencil you'll find in the attachment of the class is by using a window. As one of my students does here. If you'd like to learn more about other ways of tracing and making a drawing please watch my class "Smoothe Sunset". 3. Painting Part 1: painting the background, the tree, painting the snow without paint: We will begin with moistening the paper. The paper must be thoroughly wet. Normally, it's ideal to wet the paper on two sides or bathe it in water but for small paper sizes with the frame the moistening on one side will do nicely too. So you brush the paper with a very wet brush, in different directions, spread the water. It's kind of relaxing to do. When the water is spread thoroughly, dab the brush on a paper tissue and brush the paper again. The brush will absorb the rest of the water on the surface. The trick with painting on wet paper is to wait until the paper is wet, but there is no water on the paper. Look here, the paper glitters. The water is still not absorbed by paper. Here my paper is wet, but look matte. There is no glittering. So the paper is ready to paint on it. When you moist he watercolors, it's important to not add too much water. Here you see there is too much water on paint. You have to take just a little bit of water so that when you take the paint, there is no water in the paint. This way you take more pigment. When you try the paint on the palette or mix colors together, it's important to not add too much water too. Here I take a lot of pigment on my brush and very little water. Here you see there is much water and little pigment. The color is very transparent and flowing. Here I demonstrate what will happen if you paint with more pigment than water on wet paper. The color diffuses nicely on the paper, the edges are soft, the colors mix slowly together and create beautiful gradients. When you add a stroke with little pigment and too much water, as we saw previously, the color will flow fast on the paper. The colors will not mix with each other nicely but will flow as small rivers. Look how differently these two washes look. Let's start painting. Mix some different blues in your set. The colors may differ from my colors, it doesn't matter a lot. Apply the strokes while holding the brush more horizontally so that the belly of the brush head touches the paper completely. Look here. By painting with the brush horizontally, you will create broad strokes. Here I paint strokes so that the tip of my brush and these strokes look very differently from the previous ones. Paint with the belly of your brush the background blue but let the lamp and the area around it white. I'll let you see how I do it in real time. You see that the color covers the surface not perfectly. In some places it's darker in others lighter. It is okay. Just add more blue here and there and the strokes will be diffused on wet paper, you will see! Now take some yellow and paint the lamp and around, but don't touch the blue yet. Now, wash your brush, make it dry with the tissue, take some blue on the pallet and with light strokes mix the edges of blue and yellow. The color will be slightly greenish, spread it around the lamp. When the paper is dry it will become a kind of soft glow around the lamp. Mix more blue colors together with more pigment than water. And paint the background from the corners to the middle. Now we will mix a dark color for the tree - Mix one of the blue colors with black. When you paint a lot, painting will become intuitive, like now, I think I'd like to add some yellow on the lamp base. The dark paint must be very pigment rich and contain very little water. It's so nice to paint dark silhouettes. I love doing it and I hope you do too. Gently paint the tree, the branches, the twigs, They do not have to be exactly as you drew with pencil. The pencil lines are mostly a kind of a guide for you. Paint with the tip of your brush, a fine brush is very handy for this. I'm adding some yellowish paint on the tree trunk. By holding the brush far from the brush head, you will create loose artistic strokes. Have you tried it yet? The most magical part, I love it so much! Painting the snow, but without any white paint - this kind of snow is so soft and fluffy. It is actually very easy. The paper must be still a little bit wet. With a dry filbert brush I rub gently on the paper, then I dab it on the tissue and rub again and so on until all the snow is ready. You may wash your brush and dry it with a tissue If you feel it becomes dirty from the taken paint. You may add more snow than your branches and twigs. You can paint them when the snow is ready. I feel my paper starts to get dry. If you feel it too, moist your brush a little, dab it on the tissue and paint the snow again. I tap a couple of times with the slightly wet brush to let the water drops fall, it creates more texture in the background. Mix a little bit of orange and with a fine brush paint paint the edges of the lamp. 4. Painting Part 2: painting the branches and the lamp on dry paper, painting the falling snow: By now the paper will become almost completely dry. You can see it on the strokes. They have sharp edges. Now we can paint the details. If you make a stroke and it diffuses on the paper than wait a little with painting the details. You can also dry the paper with a hairdryer. If you don't have a dark color mix on your palette mix some of it and with a very fine brush paint the branches and the twigs. Try to make light fast movements while painting the twigs. Let's paint the tree trunk darker, beginning from above. To diffuse the edge of the wash, clean your brush, dab it on the tissue and smooth the edge with light movements of the brush. The best way to do it is with a clean, almost dry brush. A rigger or a liner brush is just perfect for thin lines like twigs. But take the color with the whole brush head and not just with the brush tip. If you make a stroke you don't like, you can correct it easily before it dries up. Clean the brush and rub the place you want to correct, then dab it with a tissue repeaters needed. Create a very dark color, mix violet and black together. Try to make the movement in one line. And where the base is yellow, let the line be just on the left edge and don't cover the whole breadth of the base. Here you can choose if you'd like the lamp base before the snow branches or maybe in some places behind them. Clean the brush, dab it on the tissue and with light strokes touch the edge of the dark stroke. The bits of dark paint will flow to the wet area, but they will be transparent so that you can see a yellowish color through it. Cover the part of the lamp with a dark color, add some darker dots in it. I dab the part of the lamp base lightly with a tissue to make it lighter. Like it's covered in snow frost. Little bit of yellow in the corners of the lamp. The middle will stay lighter as it is. Soften the edges with a clean, almost dry brush. With a small, fine brush paint the edges orange. If you'd like to add some darker lines for the branches, it's a good time to do it. With a slightly wet filbert brush rub in the middle of the lamp. Dub the place dry. Repeat it to make a shining effect. Dry the painting completely. A fun part of adding the falling snow. For the small paintings, it's nice to use a white gel pen or a white acrylic marker. Ready! And every time excited to remove the tape and see a neat white frame underneath. Don't forget to sign your painting. Every painting you make will be unique! I hope you have enjoyed this watercolor class! happy winter paintings time. I wish you a happy winter painting time! See you soon.