Create a Sparkling Winter Scene with Gouache
This month, we’re stepping into a cozy winter wonderland with gouache! Inspired by recent seasonal tutorials, I couldn’t resist adding a fourth winter scene to the collection. This piece combines a softly blended sky, gentle pastel snow, and a magical sparkle trail weaving through a frosty forest.
What You’ll Need
For this painting, I used my A6 Etchr sketchbook. It has cotton paper; perfect for layering and blending with gouache. On the palette: titanium white, primary yellow, opera rose, brilliant purple, and Prussian blue. The brushes are simple—a large angled shader and a smaller round brush for detail.
Step-by-Step Process
Background Blending: Start with a soft, pastel sky. Using loose brushstrokes, blend from pastel yellows and pinks to deeper purples as you move down the page.
Distant Trees: Mix a muted pinkish-purple and add clusters of soft, vertical lines. These trees create a lovely layered depth in the background, setting the stage for the darker trees to come.
Shadowed Snow & Foreground Trees: Paint the foreground snow with cooler blue and purple tones, letting lighter and darker patches add natural shadows. Then, layer on darker tree trunks, some with softly feathered branches that frame the scene.
Magical Sparkle Trail: With a white charcoal pencil, sketch a gentle swirl through the scene, then go over it with tiny white dots. This adds a touch of winter magic, like glistening frost caught in a breeze.
Add Frosty Plants and Highlights: Decorate the scene with delicate plant silhouettes, and bring in accents of pale blue for a frosty feel. Add some final bright spots in white and a few star-like glistens to make your winter scene sparkle.
Final Touches
As a finishing detail, retrace your sparkle trail to make it stand out and add extra dots or glowing blue accents around the scene for a pop of color.
With just a few colors and brushstrokes, you’ll have a dreamy winter landscape full of depth, texture, and a sprinkle of magic! This project is perfect for getting comfortable with layering and blending gouache in a way that brings your winter scenes to life.
Happy painting!
