Watercolor Snowflakes for Beginners

1. Class Intro: Snowflakes are a classic winter image for artists. They pose the challenge of capturing the individual snowflake, the nature of a single flake, as well as the color to which varies from white to iridescent to transparent. In today's class, watercolor snowflakes for beginners will review the technique of negative painting to capture the IC detail of a single snowflake. Hello, I'm Daniela Mellen, an author and artist. Today's class is for beginner watercolor artists will start by tracing a snowflake from the template to make our pencil sketch. Then we'll start our painting. But instead of painting our subject, which is the snowflake, will paint the areas around the snowflake or the negative image. Choose your colors or blends of colors to make an interesting background. And pretty soon you'll see a snowflake emerge. This is a fun technique that makes the colors really pop. So gather your supplies and let's get started. 2. Class Supplies: So these are the supplies that we'll use for our watercolor snowflake. We have the snowflake template that has three images of snowflakes to help you draw your snowflake. But if you want to draw it freehand, feel free to do that as well. I have a six-by-six piece of watercolor paper to create one painting of a single snowflake. But if you use larger paper, you can create multiple snowflakes. I have my watercolors and I'll include a separate list of the ones we use today in class. And then I have my brushes. I have a very fine liner, 12 over 061. And these are the brush sizes that I'm comfortable with for this painting. By had a larger painting, I'd incorporate a larger brush in there as well. I have a pencil and an eraser. In the next chapter, we'll go over using the template to create our sketch. 3. Using the Template: So to create my sketch, I just put my template on a light source. Today I'm using a light pad, but you can use a light from a window just as easily. Just put a little piece of tape up to hold your template in place. And then put your paper, your watercolor paper, right over your template where you want it for your image. Now if I shut out my studio lights, you can see the background coming through, which makes it easier to trace. So from there, once I have it placed on my paper where I want it to go with a very light hand. I'll just trace around my image. So from here, I've traced my image from my template onto my paper. If I want to make any modifications here, if I want to add different elements to the existing snowflake or a hole in the center. I do that now, but I'm happy with the way that looks. So in the next chapter, we'll start our painting. 4. Painting the Background: So now to start our painting, I like to do a negative painting mainly because I want the snowflake to really stand out and be kind of white, I guess is a better way to describe it. So I'm going to paint in everything but the snowflake. So to do that, I'm going to take my large brush and I'm going to start by just adding a little bit of water to the areas in the center of my snowflake that are not the snowflake. So the areas around the snowflake and I'm just trying to wet that paper ever so slightly. And then I'm going to choose my colors. Now for snow, I usually go with a blue highlight or a purple, maybe a pink or green. I'm going to do green, blue, and turquoise. I like to work with three colors sometimes too. But I get a nice result. For my first layer of color. I wanted to be very light. So I'm going to take some of this Prussian blue and just mix it on my palette and add a little bit of water to that. Then I'm gonna make a second puddle. It makes a little more Prussian blue, some water to that. And again, I want this to be light. And then I'll make a third puddle with whatever's left on my brush. And I'll take some of this already in hue. And now combine that with one of those blues that I have to get my turquoise. And I'll mix it playing with proportions of blue and green. Here I took a little of this indigo blue as well. And I'll just take a little more of that green. So I get a turquoise, little Prussian blue. And then some water. Take a little more of that viridian hue. Just so I have a little more puddle to work with. And now I'm going to start, I'm going to start with my green. I have a lot of water here. And with a very sharp point on my brush, I'm just going to start in the center outlining my snowflake. And I like to do one section at a time depending on the anatomy of that particular snowflake. Where I put the color down closest to the center, create that shape, that negative shape. Then I did my brush in water and Splenda out the color from there. This helps so that the most pigment is in the center of my snowflake. And that's just how I like it. If you want your darkest area around the snowflake to be on the top right? You can do that as well. And I'm just pulling that color away with just introducing more water on my brush. Each time. I'll rinse my brush and just blend that out right at the edge. Then I'll come back in and decide if I want to introduce a new color yet, or I still want to work with that green. And I'll work with that green rotating my paper around. And right now I'm just working on carving out that shape. I want that snowflake to be pristine white from the paper. Just a little bit of color here around it. This will dry even lighter than it is. But it gives me a good starting point. I can go back in there and just deposit a little bit of color in the center. Once my brush and just gently blend it out. Don't want any harsh lines. I'm going to move now to my teal, my turquoise, the teal that we mixed. And just introduce that around the area on the next section and really let that blend with the existing green. I'll come back in, rinse my brush, and blend it out, and just play around with it. I can come back in with a little of that viridian green, that viridian hue. Just help that to blend. Come back in. And again, dig out that shape, carve out that shape of that snowflake. Doing the negative images, come back in dab a little bit pigment. Just towards the center of it. Rinse my brush and blend it out. And I'll continue this, changing the colors as I go between this turquoise teal and that green. And then I'll introduce some of that blue that we have as well. So I think right here I'll stop halfway through this section. Rinse my brush and get that color to a nice blend, coming away from that snowflake. And they can come in here with that blue. And let that blend with that existing color. Come around and continue. And this layer takes the longest because I want to work while the paper is still wet and while the pigments wet. So I get a nice blend. Can decide where I want to stop with that color and introduce a different color. I think I'll go all the way over here. Maybe halfway down here. With this blue rinse my brush with clear water so I can help get that nice soft blend away from the snowflake. I'm going, I can come in here with the green and let the green and the blue mixed together and milled and form a different version of that turquoise teal. Again, I'm just going to blend out those edges. Just like that. Now I'll take a quick peek, deposit a little more pigment right in the center of my snowflake using all the colors that I already introduced. Put a little more color here and there, just to get some variation. And then I'll just make sure that it blends out nicely. If I have to incorporate a little more color to get a blend, and I'll do that. And I'm just trying to work. While my paper is wet. Over here, it's going to work a little more pigment away from the snowflake. And I know it's already starting to dry lighter. And I like that effect. I don't want it to be very bright blue or green. And when I'm happy, I'll let that completely dry. 5. Sharpening the Edges: So there my first layer is dried. Now, depending on the colors you choose to use, some colors can lift. And by that I mean, if you take a clean brush with clear water and you want to remove maybe a mark that shouldn't be there. Certain colors you can lift. So if you put water right on top of them and just kinda work it with your brush with some colors. You can just take a paper towel and lift off that color. Some colors you can't live. They stain the paper. Usually the blues will work themselves out, but I also don't want to work the paper too much to dig it up and tear it. So if there's any areas that like a big spot that you want to correct. Now's the time to do it. For our next layer, I want to sharpen up those edges. So I'm going to use the same colors that I used for the background, but with a little more intensity, but a lighter hand. So I'm going to start on this blue here. And I'll take some more of that blue, mix it on my palette. And then with a very sharp point on my brush, I'm just going to outline the area that matches that color. For the snowflake. It will dry lighter, but I also just want to sharpen up that edge. Now the area where it starts to turn into this green over here. I'm just going to take my color as far as I see. And I'll continue this all the way around my snowflake with the appropriate colors for the outline. Sometimes it's easier if I just do all the straight lines, pulling them towards me. And then I can go back in and do the lines that intersect. I just want to sharpen up that edge of that snowflake. Now, the color is turning teal. So I'll switch to my teal turquoise color and complete those outlines. Going all the way around. Just to really sharpen it up. Then I'll come in with this green, the viridian hue. And I'm going to add a little more color just to get a little more intensity right to my palette. Continue all the way around this snowflake. You can see how it's sharpens up the edges and make that snowflake pop just a little bit more. If any of the colors blended in the background here. And you want to blend your colors to match, you can do that as well. And by that, I mean, it's kind of a teal color over here where that green in that blue melded together. So I think I'll switch on that side to that teal to outline it. And again, it's just personal choice. If you want to just outline the entire thing in one color, you could do that as well. Once you have it outlined, you'll let this layer completely dry. 6. Painting Highlights: So now you could stop here if you wanted to, but I want to do a little more work just to make the snowflake really stand out. Again, I'm going to use the same colors that we already mixed. And I'm going to take my sharp number one brush and I'm going to dilute them even further. I'm going to start with this pale blue here. And I'll dilute it with a little more water. And with a very sharp point, I'm going to draw lines in the center of a snowflake, a very thin line, and the shape of the Snowflake. So I'll start in the center. Just make a little dot for reference. And I'm just going to pull that line straight down. And then I'm going to come out here across onto the little hands of the snowflake. And I'll do this with all the colors starting from the center and going out. And I'm using just a very pale color. And I'm not really worrying too much about it. Come here. And again, now the color changes to teal. So I'll just put a little teal on my palette. Water it down because I do want it lighter. Sharpen that point, and finish that snowflake. Just making a little highlight here, little emphasis. Come over here. Do the same thing. Good. Switch here now to green. Adding a little water to my green. Sharpening up that point. And I've created my snowflake. I can stop here and I like the way that looks, but I do want to add a little something else. So I'm just going to take a little of the pigment from my palette, the colors that I've already used. And I'm just going to spatter little bit of this color here and they're kind of avoiding the snowflake. And there I have my watercolor snowflake painted by focusing on the negative image instead of the actual subject. The snowflake. 7. Class Wrap Up: So here's the snowflake that we made in class today. Using the template. We have the spatter, we have the different colors. And most importantly, we've painted the negative image, leaving the white of the subjects, the snowflake to show with just a little bit of a highlight or a reflection inside of it. So it's a very simple, but very beautiful effect. And you can get different looks by varying the colors using the same techniques and using the snowflakes from our template. Here's another snowflake from the template using the same colors. The snowflake itself is different, but it's the same procedure where the background color really shows through and the white of the snowflake makes it pop. Now for this one, I didn't do any spatter. I just have the same colors and that's where I stopped on this snowflake. So I also created the snowflake using just subtle colors, a single color for the background. Instead of working on blends of colors or radiants. And it's a very effective this color, so cooling and it's very pretty. Here. I did something a little more fairy Like I have the pinks, purples, the blues, same technique, just different colors. And lastly, I combine two snowflakes onto one piece of paper. You can hold it in this formation or up and down, doesn't matter. It's the same thing with the blend, our colors in the background, not on the subject, and so it makes it pop. Now I stuck to cool colors. By cool colors, I mean blues, purples, greens. You can also use warm colors, reds, oranges and yellows. That would be a totally different design and effect. And really just do what you like. Don't feel you have to do a snowflake in blues. So I hope you'll try these techniques painting the negative background for the snowflakes to make your image and your painting. Try one of the snowflakes from the template and see the result that you get. If you do complete a painting, snap a photo, and post it in the project section, please be sure to follow me here on Skillshare to get notified of future classes. Please consider leaving a review and be sure to check out my YouTube channel where I post new videos every Monday and Wednesday. Thanks for joining me.