Snowy Day Painting

Following this video tutorial, you will see easy steps for how to create your own "Snowy Day" Painting!

Create a sketch. It does not have to be perfect, this will probably change later! You just want to focus on making sure your proportions are how you'd like, and also the composition. Try flipping the image horizontally in order to see any mistakes.

Next, simply choose the colors you want to use. Think broadly, skin, shirt and scarf. Don't consider things like blush, knitting, or background yet. You want to make sure your character is cohesive, first.

Put down some simple landmarks (roughly nose, eyes, mouth) and try to figure out where the light would be, in general. Don't worry about details, just which sides of things are light or dark. I chose front lighting.

Start drawing more of the shapes, block in the features. Test your lighting and make sure everything makes sense, the shadows aren't on the wrong side anywhere.

Now that you understand your lighting, you can add more details! I chose to make her sweater extra fluffy and give her a plaid scarf. I also started contemplating the background.

Once you're satisfied with your character, you should work on the simple background. Snow is just dabs of paint that have been blurred. Some are bigger to seem as though they are in the foreground. Some are smaller and just on her body to show interaction with the background.

Now that everything is almost done, go back in and change things like contrast levels, as well as drawing small highlights and shadows to really make your character pop. And congrats, you're finished!