12 Winter Greenery Elements in Watercolor

‘Tis the season for some winter greenery! Here are 12 easy elements you can add to your holiday card or tag or just for fun! Keep reading for my best tips in painting these winter greenery.

Follow along with my real-time painting video if you want, too!

12 winter greenery elements in watercolor by Audrey Ra Design

Supplies:

Paint: LUKAS Aquarell 1862 Watercolor
Brush(es): Creative Mark’s Mimik Synthetic, round size 6, Creative Mark’s Polar Flo, round size 2
Paper: Stonehenge cold pressed Watercolor Paper
Jars of water
Paper towel or cotton rag
All of my favorite supplies here

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Tip #1: Show a variety of green hues

Not all winter greenery is a forest green color! Try mixing in a little bit of ultramarine blue for a silvery green. Or yellow ochre or burnt umber for a warmer color. You won’t know unless you try. I love the sap green and chromium oxide green colors, and both are great when you mix other colors into it. (Check out my post on 10 favorite watercolor colors!)

Notice how these three pine branches are slightly different in greens. The second one is green-grey. Then the third is more sap green. And the fourth one has a bit of ultramarine mixed into it for a dark blue-green look.

How many more green hues do you see now?

Have fun playing around because these slight variations will make your paintings more unique!

Tip #2: Keep your brush dry

It’s important to note that most of these elements were drawn with a very dry brush. Especially when painting the pine needles, I don’t want the paint to bleed into each other. In order to maintain the thin lines, I used a round size 2 brush, and a very dry brush so that the paint dries quickly, and I don’t have to worry about paint blobs. I love these Creative Mark Polar Flo brushes because of how well they hold a point. Even with a small size 2 brush, it can hold a lot of water, too!

If you are concerned with the paint not drying fast enough, that’s okay. Just keep painting on other elements, and circle back. That’s what I did with the holly! I painted the leaves first, and then came back for the berries.

Tip #3: Use reference photos

You can’t tell from the video or these photos, but I did use references when I painted these elements. I literally did a Google search for “winter greenery” and found several sources. A few of these paintings were done without a reference photo. But the pine branches were definitely from references.

So don’t feel like you always have to think of something from your imagination. Pinterest is another great resource for finding reference photos.