In this festive watercolor class, you’ll paint Santa’s Christmas Snow Ride — a magical winter night scene filled with glow, atmosphere, and seasonal charm. Even if you're a complete beginner, worry not! I'll be guiding you from start to finish every step of the way.

We will create a luminous night sky using wet-in-wet techniques, before building the landscape in layers. You’ll learn how to paint distant trees and snowy hills, add warm window lights, and use tonal values to create depth and contrast.

The class finishes with Santa’s silhouette crossing the scene, a softly shaded moon, and spattered snowflakes to bring the painting to life - magic!

Key Watercolor Techniques

Wet-in-wet sky painting
Color mingling for soft, glowing effects
Creating depth with distant trees and hills
Painting snow and snow shadows
Using warm light against cool winter colors
Building foreground detail with tonal contrast
Painting silhouettes for strong focal points
Shading to create rounded forms
Spatter technique for falling snow

Watercolor is an enchanting, magical medium, just perfect for a bit of winter snowflake sparkle. By the end of this class, you will have the skills needed to create this lovely scene of Santa's Xmas Snow Ride as he flies through an illuminated sky on his sleigh. The course is packed with exciting ideas and techniques. I will show you exactly how to paint this magical scene from start to finish. You’ll get a real glimpse of what goes into my painting as you work alongside of me up-close and personal. I will remove the mystery of watercolor and show you how to discover new ways to unleash your creativity as you join me on this inspirational journey of start-to-finish demonstrations and techniques. As the video unfolds, you will see how colors work together, how to step into impressionism and push color to capture the mood and essence of your subject. This class will inspire you to use watercolor in a range of different ways. Best of all, you’ll gain a real sense of accomplishment by creating your own beautiful, evocative winter landscape painting, complete with Santa and his reindeer. (Alternatively, feel free to paint the winter landscape without the Santa silhouette if you wish - it's YOUR painting, so the choice of what to include is entirely yours.)

Is this class for me? Absolutely, 100% yes! Watercolor basics are very simple to learn - like everything else it just takes practice to master, whilst also allowing the watercolor to ‘do its own thing’ and not trying to overly-control those ‘happy accidents’. All are welcome. If you are a complete beginner, you will learn the simple methods needed to paint with confidence. There are also techniques and ideas for those who already have some experience but want to loosen up a bit, become more expressive, and enhance their watercolor skills. You don't need to know how to draw, as I provide a template of the drawing for you to download and trace - so you can just concentrate on the fun of painting.

I’m a big believer in ‘learning by 'doing' rather than by lecture, so you will paint right alongside me, up close and personal and learn the skills in a practical way. I'll share some of my favorite studio tips and tricks for successful working practices and saving time (eg, use cut up credit card for indenting or scraping off color, layer color, spatter white ink or paint to create snowflakes)

Alright, let's do it! Come join me for a fun, creative class! Let's get going. Just follow the video boldly along, and you’ll soon have the knowledge and confidence to produce your very own gorgeous Winter landscape painting that zings with color and energy.

I can't wait to see what you create!

My Artwork: I’ve been teaching people how to paint with watercolour for many years - you can see more examples of my artwork on my website: http://www.carriemckenzieart.co.uk

Cassie Schmidt

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