How to Paint: 3 Christmas Holiday Watercolor Ornaments

Paint these watercolor ornaments for this year’s holiday greeting cards! You all know how much I love wreaths. So here are two wreath ideas as well as a floral themed ornament idea.

This tutorial’s video is all in real-time. So grab your paints, grab your favorite coffee or other drink, and paint with me!

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
Black fineliner pen
Something to help draw a circle (i.e. mason jar lid)
Jars of water
Paper towel or cotton rag
Pencil and eraser
All of my favorite supplies here

This post includes affiliates links. This means that if you purchase the item using my link, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. I will only post products that I have personally used and would recommend. The small commission helps run this blog and its activities. Thank you!

Project #1: Winter Ornament

Lightly draw a circle. Use yellow ochre to paint the ornament holder at the top. Then start filling in the circle space with various floral elements. I started out with a large leafy element and pine branches.

Depending on the size of your circle, you will have to use a smaller round brush like a size 1 or 2. I’m using a size 2.

Next, add berry elements. I’m using the Alizarin crimson color. Try to show different values in your berries.

Keep filling in the circle with more leaves, pine branches, and berry clusters. Make sure to paint some of the elements along the pencil line.

Project #2: Ornament Wreath

This project was inspired by those large wreaths of shiny and metallic ornament baubles. Why not make a watercolor ornaments wreath version of that?

Begin by lightly drawing a small circle. Then with three colors, Alizarin crimson, chromium oxide green, and genuine rose, paint various sized circles along the pencil line. Make sure to leave a little bit of white space for the highlight. Let the colors bleed a little and play around with values.

Fill in the spaces between the baubles with short strokes of a dark red color. This represents the shiny garland that ties everything together.

Wait until your painting is completely dry. And then use your fineliner pen to draw patterns on your baubles. It’s up to you if you want to draw on all of them or just some.

Finish it off by drawing some tiny rectangles to represent the ornament holder. And ta-da, you’re done!

Project #3: Winter Wreath

This wreath is typically my style, but since it’s holiday themed, we’ll use mostly winter colors and elements. Use a small round size 2 brush and paint short strokes with burnt umber and yellow ochre to represent branches.