Seasonal Palette - Winter

Fence Posts in the Snow

Watercolor 11" x 15" Mats to 16" x 20"

My watercolor above, Fence Posts in the Snow, is one of my favorite winter season paintings for my watercolor students to paint.  It utilizes several techniques, but is a painting a beginner can accomplish and enjoy.

This week, I'll introduce the winter palette.

Even if isn’t covered with snow, the winter landscape rarely contains bright colors. Although bold red and yellow colors may be useful in other season, they are usually unnecessary in winter. Even bright greens may have limited use, as winter foliage tends to be dull and subdued – particularly the dark evergreen of conifers and the faded grey-green of grasses that have lost their summer freshness.

Winter Palette Colors:

• Payne’s Gray
• Ultramarine
• Burnt Sienna
• Sap Green
• Burnt Umber
A palette of only 5 colors is usually all that are needed for the winter palette. The slightly cool Payne’s Gray is a good starting point for all mixes. It can be used with Ultramarine for the sky and cold shadow colors. Sap green is good for foliage with burnt umber and burnt sienna to all some warmer tones.

Trees and their shadows are made from the following colors:
• Sap Green
• Payne’s Gray
• Burnt Umber

Sky and shadows reflecting the sky are mixed from:
• Ultramarine
• Payne’s Grey

Warmer foreground shadows are mixed from:
• Ultramarine
• Burnt Sienna
• Payne’s Grey

Winter Light
With so few local colors present in the typical winter landscape, your choice of colors will be dictated by the weather and the light. On a cloudy day, the landscape can appear monochromatic – simply a range of blacks, whites, and grays with subtle tinges of green, blue, and brown. In this case the emphasis will be on mostly neutral colors – Payne’s gray and burnt umber.

Colored Shadows
If you are painting a winter scene in sunshine, the sun will bring out a spectrum of blue and warm good that require the addition of ultramarine and burnt sienna. Sunlight winter grasses will require solid sap green.

As the sun appears closer to the horizon in winter than it does in summer, it creates longer shadows. These shadows contain a lot of color – particularly blues and green. Against the whiteness of snow, they can appear very translucent and bright with color.

Contrasting Tones
Snow creates extreme contrasts. The lightest tone is the dazzling whiteness of the snow itself; the darkest tones will be created by the silhouettes of trees and other objects.

Watercolor is the perfect medium for a wintery painting because you can use the unpainted white paper to represent the snow. The bright whiteness of snow makes everything else in the landscape appear dark in comparison.

Opaque White
Opaque white can be used in the final stages of a winter painting. This can be used as scattered snowflakes, which lend a decorative and realistic touch to a scene. This is an effective detail, which you can add to any snowy landscape.

Simply spatter the finished painting lightly with white and grey. The white will show up against the dark tones; the grey will stand out from the white snow.

Warning: White paint contains chalk. When white is added to other pigments the resulting colors become pale and chalky….this can destroy the natural transparency of watercolor paints. White paint is best reserved for special effects.

Happy Painting!
Karen