Quick and easy tips that will improve your winter landscapes!

First let's talk about colors. There are a variety of pallettes that will be pleasing, but I really love my “winter wonderland” colors used in the digital painting below.

No matter what you choose, I recommend that you include a little bit of a warm color to break up the cool of the entire canvas.

Underpainting can be very helpful, especially with snow on the ground. I didn't use any color other than white but it looks like I've blended in blue and purple for the shadows. All you need is a brush with color stretch and / or brush density pen pressure dynamics turned on. Paint the snow with this brush and use lighter pressure where the shadows would be.

You can also use this type of brush to add the shadows to smaller surface areas where underpainting isn't required. In the example above, the snow on the tops of the two foreground objects and the rooftop were painted this way. In this case I paint a solid white base, then lock the transparency of the layer and paint the blue shadows. I prefer using blue rather than gray because gray can make the snow look dirty if you're not careful.

In this example I've also lightly used an airbrush to create the appearance of fine snow particles picked up by wind, and slightly lowered the transparency of background objects to make them look further away.

Speaking of snow there are many different varieties! I love fluffy snow but you can also use lumpy, wet or crunchy snow.

Below are some reference photos of snow in various conditions. Also take note of the sky color - there are some warm colors! None of the photos have been adjusted or filtered.

An easy way to make your snow more realistic or exciting - add some sparkle or glitter! In reality snow reflects light and has a sparkly appearance.

This works best when you start with a medium base, lock transparency, then use bright white for the glitter effect. It's more visible in foreground snow.

Falling snow also comes in varieties, however variation in the size is what's most important. The size of the snow particles should be smaller in the background and larger in the foreground. Using one size can give a flat appearance to your landscape.

Notice the change in size in the example above.

We've discussed snow on the ground and in the air, but snow on trees and objects can be the most difficult to illustrate.

Evergreen trees have a large surface area and will collect more snow. Sometimes they can be nearly covered!

To paint both the tree and the snow, I like to use a flat oval brush tip and turn on pen pressure dynamics for density of paint and sometimes brush density as well. This helps create more shape with each stroke and gives the snow some shadows. I always start at the bottom and work my way up. This creates a natural layering effect.

Below is a finished and deconstructed example.

Deciduous trees have less surface area and don't collect as much snow. It will only accumulate on creases or tops of branches. If the wind is blowing sticky snow, it may also form a thin blotchy layer on the trunk.

I've demonstrated both scenarios in the example below.

I hope these tips were helpful! Be sure to expand your winter brushes with Clip Studio Assets. Thanks 😊