Winter Night Christmas Painting Tutorial | Watercolor Christmas Card

Hi guys, welcome back! I'm really excited today because this tutorial will be our first video which will be kickstarting our Christmas marathon which will run all the way until December. So every week, I'll be releasing one Christmas tutorial which you can follow along. So yeah, without further ado, let's jump right in and talk about our materials. In terms of materials, let's start with the brushes. And firstly, here I have a round mop brush and the one I'm using is from the Winsy Mixpe 438. So this is a larger size and then I have a smaller size of a round mop brush. And this one is size 30 from Raphael Soft Aqua 805. And then we have this synthetic brush. This one is from Escoda size 6 Perla Synthetical. So this will be used for painting those tiny details. And then next, I have a bigger flat brush. This I'm using is the Winsy Petit Gris Mix size 16. Otherwise, any flat brush will do. This is used for pre-wetting the paper. And then last but not least, here I have just a basic flat brush. This one is from ArtPak Nylon Series 448 size 12. A synthetic brush and the bristles you can see they are really nice and tough. So I'm going to use this for some splatters towards the end of the painting. Alright, so these are the brushes that I'll be using. And in terms of paints, see here for the light, I've used both yellow and orange. So here I have with me Naples yellow and Cadmium Yellow Orange for the lights. And for the background, I'll be using for the skies, I'll be using Neutral Tint as well as Van Dyke Brown for the trees. I'll be mixing in Van Dyke Brown with Neutral Tint to create this hue for the background trees. In terms of brands, it doesn't matter. Any brand will do. Okay, so I have the sketch ready here. And if you're interested to download this pencil sketch, it will be available on my Patreon. Otherwise, feel free to just pause here to sketch this. And then now let's dive into our painting and then we'll start off around this area here where the lamppost is. But before that, let me just gently lighten the pencil sketch. So I'm just going to dab on these areas. Okay, and then let's dive in straight. I'm gonna grab some orange. So I'm picking up some Cadmium Yellow Orange. And I'm using my bigger bigger size small brush. So I'm just going to wet the center where the light bulb is and then spread it around like so. I'm going to keep the center paper white and then going straight in with Naples Yellow. I'm going to bring this outwards all the way out. Okay, around this area and then with water, I'm going to pull the colors out. Blend it out. Water and then here I'll go in with Neutral Tin. Very light wash and then apply around this area. And I'm going to allow this Neutral Tin to slowly flow in towards the lamp. And then let's cover the rest of the paper. Then switching over to my flat brush and just fill up the entire page. So we want to do this really quick because we're using the wet on wet technique. Bring the colors down and then it may look pretty dark here but once it dries, it dries much lighter. So I'm going in to add more pigments to the mixture. I'm going to make it darker around the edges, around the corners of the paper and then let it tilt around. Let it paint it darker around the bottom as well and allow it to tilt and allow the paints to move around. And if you feel that your paints accidentally fill up the entire yellow area, you could grab a clean dry brush. Remove excess water just like that using your finger and then lift up the blues like so. I'm going to let it flow downwards so it doesn't come off the top. You can only do this when this layer is still wet. And then now quickly I'm going to mix Van Dyke Brown with this Neutral Tin to get a nice darker color. Almost black. And then we're going to paint in the trees in the background. So we're going to start with the top. I'm changing to use my smaller mop brush. Okay and then let's start adding it in. If you feel that it's spreading out too much, dry off excess water. We need to have thicker paints. And then paint it like a v-shape, shape of the trees. And going down, I'm using back this bigger mop brush. And then be sure to leave some gaps in between. Okay and then let's do another one around here. And then I'll do a shorter one inside. Okay like that. And let's say you feel that the edges are a little harsh because the paper is starting to dry. So with a wet brush, remove excess water and then just blend it out. So we are done with the first layer. I'm going to go ahead and give it a quick dry. And now let's come back to this. All right so this is fully dry now. And then let's start painting in the silhouette for the lamp. So we're going to use the same hue that we used for this, which is Neutral Tin and Van Dyke Brown. And I'm going to use this small mop brush that comes with a sharper tip. Okay and then let's go ahead and paint it in. So make sure that your paper is really dry before we start this next layer. And I'm going to keep it light strokes. Okay and then coming down, be sure to leave some white gaps in between. It will help to give some highlights. Okay so I've painted in the silhouette for the lamp. And for the final step, which is the fun part. And yeah I forgot to mention earlier that we also need white paint. So just grab any brands that you have or white watercolor paints. Make sure you get it really nice and thick. And I'll be using this brush. A brush that comes with really stiff bristles. So you get that nice snap. A good mix. Okay and then using, holding it like this, I'm just going to splatter it all over the paper. You see that really nice bits of tiny dots coming up. And what I like about it is that you can vary between the sizes of splatter that comes out. So I'm going to add a bit more water to get some bigger splatters. There you go, some bigger ones with more water. And this one I'm not using gouache. It's just white watercolor paints. Add a bit more water to get those bigger splatters. And especially add more around the bottom area where you will create higher contrast among the darker background. So yeah when painting our first layer earlier on, don't be afraid to go a lot darker with the paints. Because once it dries, it dries so much lighter. For this paper that I'm using, it tends to dry a lot much lighter. Which is why I went really dark when painting in the first layer. Okay we want to have a good variation of smaller splatters and bigger splatters. Let's do this. Okay and then I'm going in with this synthetic brush. Let's paint in the tiny small details. I'm going to paint in some snow that lands on top. So you have some on top here. So for this I'm going in much thicker, less water. And then with the smaller brush, just with water, I'm going to blend out the bottom. Let's keep adding and again blend out the bottom of the snow. Don't have to blend out everything. You can have some hard lines in some areas. I'm just layering on more white paints to show like a thick layer of snow. Okay and then let's add some here. Add in dots like this to make it look more clumpy. Stab it on like that. Give that clumpy look. Okay and then let's finish off with a bit more splatters. And we are done! And this is what it looks like. Let me give you a close-up. Look at those snows. They look so pretty. And I like how it makes it look a little more realistic with this snow on top. So yeah this is a fairly simple painting to do and if you're interested, do give it a try. It's really easy to paint and I think it makes a lovely Christmas card as well. If you do give this a try, tag me on Instagram. I'd love to see and share your work. Otherwise, stay tuned and I'll see you in the next Christmas Marathon!