Last week it was snowing for 4 days straight up in Duluth, Minnesota and it dawned on me that I love painting snow! There are a few things I do a little differently when I paint snow into my paintings and they are listed below.

 

The greatest thing about using watercolor to paint snow is that the snow is already all the white of the paper so what you really are painting is the shadows of the snow and the objects in the snow, like trees.

When it comes to the color of a snow scene the background is usually warm and the foreground is cool, which is totally opposite from what you usually paint in a landscape scene.

Using masking fluid to apply snow into a scene is a really easy way to show where all the snow will be located. When you get done putting in all the stuff of a landscape over the masking fluid and then when you rub off all the masking fluid the snow stands out so well. Then all you have to do is add shadow to your snow areas.

Making it snow in a painting is pretty easy if you just use white paint after you are finished with the painting and you spatter it over the painting.

 

If you are painting an overcast snow scene there are usually a ton of neutral tones so you can add a single bright color like red, orange, yellow, or turquoise and it will really make the painting pop. Alvaro Castagnet does this in his paintings quite a bit. See an example of his painting below.

I hear if you paint a watercolor outside in the freezing cold and you let the painting freeze it gives it a neat frozen style look. I haven't done this yet but I think if you would stick it in the freezer you can get a similar look.

Winter is coming, so get those winter scenes going and stay warm!