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Hey everyone! Today we are going to paint an easy watercolor painting of a winter cabin!

I am so excited to share this painting process with you. I know I had so much fun painting it, and I think you will too.

Let’s get started!

Full video tutorial at the end of this post!

Supplies You’ll Need:

Watercolor Paper

Watercolor Paint

Round Brushes

Two Cups of Water

Paper Towel

Pencil

Paint Colors Used:

Ultramarine Blue

Viridian Green

Burnt Umber

Alzarian Crimson

Payne’s Gray

Chinese White

Cadmium Yellow

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:

The first thing we need to do to start this painting is to draw out our landscape and log cabin. Grab your pencil and let’s get to it.

First, draw a line across the page about a third of the way up from the bottom, to make up our horizon line.

Over on the righthand side, I am going to draw in my log cabin. Using your pencil create a thin rectangle to start. Then draw a line that is slightly smaller than the rectangle right above it.

Then bring down either side of the roof to where the roof is coming out a little farther than the base rectangle.

Then create a triangle on the right side of the roof, then add a line coming down to create the side of the log cabin.

To make it look more like a log cabin add circles down either side of the front of the log cabin, then connect the circles with a line across.

On the sidewall use your pencil to frame out a small window. Then on the front of the house draw a small square for the front door and an even smaller square to the top left area next to the door (this will be the cabin’s outdoor light). And finally, add a small square on the top of the roof for a chimney.

Step 2:

Let’s start painting by painting in our cabin first. Mix together a light wash of burnt umber paint and begin to apply it all over the cabin leaving some white space and avoiding the window, porch light, and door.

Paint the chimney with the remaining burnt umber paint left on your brush.

Next, use a light wash of cadmium yellow paint in the porch light and the side window. Leave a little bit of white space between the yellow paint and the brown cabin.

Let’s add some Alzarian Crimson paint to our cabin’s door. Follow the same step as above leaving a little bit of white space between the brown cabin and the red door.

Lastly, let’s add some shadowing around our cabin. Take an extremely light wash of cadmium yellow and add some shadowing in front of the porch light and side window.

For the rest of the cabin’s shadowing use an extremely light wash of Payne’s gray to paint around the cabin and in between the yellow shadowing.

Let your cabin completely dry before moving on.

Step 3:

Once your cabin is dry we can paint in our evening sky and forest! This little step will make this painting come to life.

Start with having your navy blue mixture and blue-green paint mixture ready in your pallet.

Now grab your round brush and apply a layer of clean water all over the sky area, avoiding the cabin.

Then begin painting in the sky diagonally using the navy blue paint mixture on the left side, and then transition into the blue-green paint mixture halfway across the sky.

While the sky is still wet, begin painting in the trees along the horizon line. Adding in the trees while the sky is wet, will help them blend into the background and create depth.

To paint the tree, (use a milky mixture of Payne’s Gray) start with a thin line for the base of the tree and begin adding in zig-zag lines starting small at the top and becoming wider as you reach the bottom of the trunk.

Let this step dry before moving on.

Step 4:

For this step, we are going to add a couple more trees to continue to add depth to our painting.

The trees we are going to add are going to be similar to what we did before along the horizon line, but instead of painting wet on wet, we are going to paint wet on dry. This small detail change will help these trees to be more in focus.

We are going to add trees on the far right side of the cabin, right next to the left side of the cabin, and a couple in front of the horizon line. Please, use the picture below as a guide.

Using a thick wash of Payne’s Gray, each tree will be painted with a thin line for the tree trunk, and quick line motions to add the pine needles. The top of the tree’s branches should be short pointing upward, then as you paint downward, the branches should get longer and start pointing outward.

To add a shadow under each new tree, take clean water on your brush and blend out the bottom of the tree into the white page. This will help the white page look like snow.

Step 5:

Let’s finish this painting off with some final detail to our cabin and add snow in the sky!

First, let’s focus on our cabin. Take a light wash of burnt umber and apply a second coat of burnt umber on the cabin, again avoid the window, door, and light.

Then tap in a slightly darker burnt umber mixture right under the cabin’s roof and along the cabin’s log circles, and to the right side of the chimney.

Now, fill up your round brush with a lot of white paint and water, and tap it all over the sky! This will create a light snowfall look to complete our painting.

Congrats! You did it!

I hope you enjoyed painting this winter cabin landscape with me today! I know I had a fun time painting it, it’s definitely one of my favorites! If you enjoyed it, please consider sharing it on Pinterest or social media.

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