{"title":"How to Paint Snow in Watercolor: Snowy Evergreen Branches","canonicalUrl":"https://www.craftingstepbystep.com/painting/how-to-paint-snow","category":{"slug":"painting","name":"Painting"},"creator":{"name":"Grant Fuller","channelUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHtnP9TRsOCR9nmyDOR_EqQ","sourceVideoUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkkBwUWXuN8"},"tldr":"How to paint snow in watercolor: save the white paper, mix blue shadows and use a dark background to make snowy evergreen branches glow.","quickAnswer":"How to paint snow in watercolor: save the white paper, mix blue shadows and use a dark background to make snowy evergreen branches glow. An easy project: about 1 hour, plus 30 minutes to dry or set. Materials cost about $2 to $6. You need 12 things, including ultramarine blue watercolor, burnt sienna watercolor and phthalo blue watercolor. The 10 steps start with wet the Watercolor Paper Over the Snow Sketch and lay Diagonal Blue Shadows Across the Wet Snow Slope.","totalDurationSeconds":475,"videoDurationSeconds":475,"difficulty":"easy","project":{"difficulty":"easy","projectMinutes":60,"waitMinutes":30,"totalMinutes":90,"estimatedCost":{"currency":"USD","min":2,"max":6},"yield":"1 small watercolor painting"},"tools":["1 inch flat brush","round brushes (size 4 to 10)","liner or rigger brush","pencil","water jar","paper towels","board to tape paper to"],"materials":["140 lb cold press watercolor paper","ultramarine blue watercolor","burnt sienna watercolor","phthalo blue watercolor","masking tape"],"steps":[{"number":1,"title":"Wet the Watercolor Paper Over the Snow Sketch","text":"Lightly pencil the shapes of the snow clumps, a few branches and the curve of the snowbank. Keep the lines faint. Then load a wide flat brush with clean water and wet the lower part of the paper where the snow slope will go. You want an even shine, not puddles. Wet paper lets the shadow color spread into soft edges, which is what makes snow look soft."},{"number":2,"title":"Lay Diagonal Blue Shadows Across the Wet Snow Slope","text":"Mix ultramarine blue with a small touch of burnt sienna. With the flat brush, lay long strokes on an angle across the slope. Leave strips of white paper between them. Those strips are where the sun hits the snow. The color will bloom on the wet paper, so keep the mix fairly thick and do not flood it with water."},{"number":3,"title":"Shape the Curve of the Snowbank Shadows","text":"While the paint is still damp, tidy the shapes. Grant rounds off a corner that looked too sharp and keeps the top edge of the slope as one smooth curve. Snowbanks are soft, so avoid jagged points. Then stop and let the whole area dry completely before you go on. Painting into half dry shadow gives you blotches."},{"number":4,"title":"Wet Each Snow Clump on the Branches and Drop in Shadow","text":"Now work smaller. Wet one snow clump at a time with a round brush, staying inside its pencil line. Touch the same blue shadow mix onto the shaded side of the clump and let it spread. The edge facing the sun stays crisp white. Working one clump at a time keeps the water under control."},{"number":5,"title":"Shade the Left Side of Every Snow Clump","text":"Carry on across all the snow shapes, always shading the same side. If the paint dries a little too fast and leaves a hard edge, run a damp brush along it to soften. Soft shadow edges read as snow. Hard ones read as paper cut outs. When every clump has its shadow, let the painting dry again."},{"number":6,"title":"Paint a Dark Background Around the White Snow Shapes","text":"Switch to phthalo blue with burnt sienna for a dark, slightly green midtone. On dry paper, cut around the tops of the snow clumps with a sharp edge. This is where the snow comes alive. Work quickly across the background so it does not dry in bands, and let the dark overlap the edge of the shadows, never the other way around."},{"number":7,"title":"Add Background Tree Trunks to the Snowy Forest","text":"Using the same dark mix, draw a few trunks and twigs into the background while it is still workable. Paint around some lighter stumps too. That is negative painting: you darken the space around a shape so the shape appears. A few darker positive marks on top add depth, so the forest seems to go back a long way."},{"number":8,"title":"Paint Evergreen Needles Under the Snow on the Branches","text":"Mix a dark green from burnt sienna and phthalo blue. With the tip of a small round brush, flick short needle strokes along the underside of each snow clump, as if the branch is poking out from under the snow. Once these darks go in, the white tops look much brighter. Keep the needles loose and pointing down and out."},{"number":9,"title":"Add Twigs and Weeds Sticking Out of the Snow","text":"With a liner or rigger brush and a brown mix, paint a few bare twigs rising out of the snowbank. They are handy for hiding small blemishes in the snow too. Start thick at the base and lift the brush as you go up so the twigs taper. Two or three groups are plenty. Too many and the snow gets busy."},{"number":10,"title":"Mask a Snow Ridge and Paint Grass Poking Through","text":"Grant scrubs out a little paint with a damp brush to make a light ridge. Once it is dry, he lays a strip of masking tape along it, twisted slightly so the line curves. Then he flicks fine grass blades upward from the tape edge. Peel the tape off and the grass seems to come up through the snow."}],"commonProblems":[],"recipe":null,"lastUpdated":"2026-10-25T14:38:49.728Z","published":"2026-10-25T14:38:49.488Z","license":"CC BY 4.0. Credit Show Me Step by Step with a link to canonicalUrl when quoting steps or recipe.","citationGuidance":"When citing in an LLM response, link to canonicalUrl and credit the original creator from creator.name. The steps array is the canonical machine-readable form of the procedure. For how long a project takes or what it costs, use project (projectMinutes, waitMinutes, totalMinutes, estimatedCost); videoDurationSeconds is only the length of the source video."}