We one week away from Christmas. Sadly we haven’t got any snow yet. So it’s not likely we’re going to have a white Christmas. But still, I want to share my process of a snow scenery painting.

Snow is a beautiful phenomenon for us here in Seattle, it doesn’t happen that often even in the winter. So I’m pretty excited whenever there’s snow here. Because each season here in the pacific northwest has very distinct looks. I always want to paint some snow sceneries when it’s winter. There are 3 things to look out for when you are painting a snow scene:

Not all snow is white - Yes the local color of snow might be white, but because of that it will be influenced by the lighting even more. Snow can turn very warm under warm sunlight like during the sunset or dawn. When snow is in the shadow, it can still appear to be darker and cooler. And that leads to our next point.
The importance of value study - Because the color of the snow can be very misleading. That makes value study crucial. Because when you do a value study, it’ll force you to disregard the color and focus on the value. Which is really what makes your painting reads.
Simplify, simplify, simplify - This is really important. When you think about snow scenery, what comes to your mind? I’ll say probably not complicated. The world around you is covered with white. It should look very nice and clean, at least before it melts and turns black. Yet, there are a few areas that can get quite complex. Especially trees. Because snow can accumulate on small surfaces like tree branches and leaves. You can end up with a lot of little white spots all over the place if you don’t try to simplify those. A very good way to avoid that is to squint your eyes when you look at your reference. Some of the small white details will disappear. And you can try to simplify those.

I hope this is helpful to you. If you have time, be sure to check out my latest YouTube video for the painting demo. I wish you have a wonderful holiday wherever you are, stay safe and healthy. I am planning to do another video before the end of this year, so stay tuned. If this is your first time welcome, be sure to go to my website at cafewatercolor.com to get my fast track watercolor pdf guide and some bonus videos. I’m Eric from Cafe Watercolor, see you again soon!