Wednesday, 10 December 2014

Painting a Simple Snowy Pine With Watercolors

Posted by Unknown on 23:54 Artical , Arts No comments

One of the more thoughtful gifts people can receive is something handmade. It signifies the giver as having put forth time and effort to create something that doesn’t need to be elaborate or perfect, as the mere thought is what makes a handmade gift one to be cherished.

Things You’ll Need
Watercolor paint (I used Winsor & Newton professional series)
Flat brush No. 16
Fine-tipped brush No. 6
Watercolor paper or heavy cardstock
White wax crayon
Salt (optional)
Glue (optional)
Glitter (optional)

Select the desired size watercolor paper, and fold it in half.

Working within an imaginary triangle, lightly draw irregular shapes representing where the snow would collect on the branches of a pine tree (note: the shapes appear darker here than suggested, for illustrative purposes).

Using a white wax crayon, fill in the areas. Known as resist, the technique will result in the areas remaining white after you add color.

Prepare your color palette, using a mixture of greens and blues.

Using your flat brush,

paint in the sky using the blue mixture. Add a simple streak of gray below the tree.

Add green to the tree, always working within the imaginary triangle.

Optional: While the paint is wet, sprinkle salt onto the blue paint.

With your No. 6 brush,

add a few lines to detail the branches. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly. If you sprinkled salt onto the paint, you can now wipe it off. The salt adds extra texture to the painting and resembles falling snow. Please note: It’s very important that the paint is completely dry prior to wiping the salt off, as you otherwise risk smudging the paint.