Watercolours: Snowman

In today's blog, I show you how easy it is to draw and paint your own snowman in watercolours. I used these in my Christmas cards when I was done, and they were quite a hit. If you believe you can't draw or paint, this is a good project to get you started, as it is super easy.

The first step when painting with watercolours, is to drop a droplet of water on each pan of paint to get it slightly moist and wet.

I will use Derwent's Aquatone woodless watercolour pencils to draw the snowman with.

I draw the parts that are snow with a blue pencil. Using a watercolour pencil to draw with, means that my lines will wash out when I apply water to them, making them less defined than a grey pencil line.

I then draw his hat and scarf with a red pencil.

His tunic is drawn in green.

Yellow buttons are added, sewn on with red thread.

I draw his face in black, red and orange.

I then paint an uneven blue colour wash on the whole background. To prevent the blue from running into the snowman, I first paint the area around the snowman with water, before adding the paint. It creates a beautiful wash, as well as to restrict the paint to the areas outside the snowman.

I then use my aqua brush, withe the water reservoir in the handle, to paint the reds in the picture.

I then paint the greens.

I paint the snowman blue, leaving some white of the paper to show through. I also paint the and the buttons.

Then I paint the facial detail.

Now it is time to work on the background. I draw brown lines behind the snowman.

Then I dab a fan brush in green paint and, standing it on its tips, I dab it to the paper at the angle of the pine branches.

I come in with at least two more shades of green. You may opt to swap out a green for a yellow if you prefer your forest more sunny.

Then I use a flat brush to add shadows to the forest line, the snow and the snowman.

I define the shadows by adding touches of brown.

Then I use a fine round brush to add shadows to the woolens, the buttons, the face and the snowman.

The final picture.

It was only when I placed the snowman next to his lady friend, that I realised I had never painted an opening in his tunic. I quickly added this. In a follow-up blog, I will show you how to turn this cute pair into cards. Mine was part of my Christmas card collection last year.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
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