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In this easy watercolor beginner tutorial of a snowman, I will walk you through step by step how to paint a snowman with a subtle wintery background. What could be a better holiday greeting card than a cute watercolor snowman? Let’s jump in!
Full video tutorial at the end of this post!
Supplies You’ll Need:
Watercolor Paper
Watercolor Paint
Round Paint Brushes
Pencil
Eraser
Two cups of water
Paper towel
Paint Colors Used:
Alizarin Crimson
Ultramarine Blue
Payne’s Gray
Burnt Sienna
All of these colors can be found in this perfect beginner set of watercolor paints. This is the exact set I am using in the video above to create this painting. I highly recommend this product to you if you are looking for a beginner set of paints.
Step 1:
Before we can start painting we first need to draw our snowman. Draw three circles, the bottom one big, then medium, then small.
Use your eraser to lightly erase the lines to where you can barely see them.
Now we can start painting in our easy cute snowman!
Step 2:
We are going to start with our bottom circle.
Grab your round brush and fill in the bottom circle with an even gloss of clean water. Then tap in a light wash of Payne’s Gray paint to the left side, and then just to the outline of the right.
You will want the left side to appear darker than the right to give a natural shadow look. Try to leave the middle of the bottom circle as clean as possible so the snowman doesn’t just appear gray.
Let this layer dry before you move on to Step 3.
You may also like, How to Paint a Watercolor Penguin.
Step 3:
Before we dive into painting the second circle of our snowman we are going to draw a scarf on our snowman’s neck.
Create a rectangle with curved edges on each side. Then add a rectangle coming down off the first rectangle. Then add curved stripe lines to give the scarf detail.
Now that we have our scarf drawn in we can add a clean layer of water to the middle circle. Leave the scarf area completely dry.
Begin tapping in the light Payne’s Gray paint mixture to the entire rim of the middle circle and around the border of the scarf. Again, this is just giving our sketch a nice natural shadow appearance to stand apart from the white page.
While the middle circle dries we can immediately begin working on the top circle.
Add a clean layer of water to the top circle, and add Payne’s gray to the entire border of the snowman.
Let both of these circles dry before moving on.
Step 4:
Let’s add the fun detail to this snowman by putting his earmuffs on and giving him some cute facial features!
Feel free to use your pencil to sketch in the earmuffs, eyes, mouth, and carrot nose, or feel free to paint them freehand.
Using the Alzarian Crimson paint mixture fill in every other stripe in the snowman’s scarf, and the puffs on the earmuffs.
Next, use your small detail round brush to fill in a thin upward triangle with Burnt Sienna for the snowman’s carrot nose.
Lastly, for this step, use your small detail brush to apply a thick paint mixture of Payne’s Gray to the top of the earmuffs, the closed eyes, and the mouth.
Wait for each section to dry before moving on.
Step 5:
For this step, we are going to give our snowman some ground to stand on.
Fill the area underneath and slightly behind the snowman with clean water, then use that same light wash of Payne’s Gray to tap in some shadows. Apply Payne’s Gray to the horizon line and underneath the snowman.
Let this layer dry before we put our sky in.
Step 6:
Again we are going to use the wet of wet techniquw by adding a clean layer of water behind our snowman. Then mix together a combination of Payne’s Gray and Ultramarine Blue to create a navy color.
Use your round brush to apply the navy paint all over the pre-wet area. Blend the paint carefully around the snowman.
We need to let this layer dry before we add the arms to the snowman.
Step 7:
For our final step, use your small detail brush to add thin stick arms to each side of the snowman using a thick mixture of Payne’s Gray.
Give each arm three uneven fingers.
Congrats! You have finished this watercolor snowman painting!
Full Video Tutorial
Here are some more tutorials you may like:
Easy Watercolor Painting Watercolor Penguin
Easy Watercolor Christmas Card Tutorial | Christmas Truck
I hope you enjoyed painting this cute watercolor snowman with me today! If you did, please share this Easy Watercolor Beginner Tutorial on Pinterest!
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