How to Paint: Winter Robin Watercolours

I always feel that every season brings a new inspiration, and this year it has to be the frosty wintry weather we’ve had throughout December here in the UK. I love it!

As you know, I have a real passion for painting robins. They are featured on my popular Christmas products and greetings card designs in the marketplace bringing them to life for everyone to enjoy and take home. I’ve shared some of my designs in this inspiration journal with you.

Have you tried my free robin VIDEO watercolour class yet?

In the video, I use the wet on dry and wet on wet techniques, to create some beautiful and varied effects. To create the frosty background effect like my painting above, you can sprinkle salt into our watery blue wash right at the very end.

If you’ve not done already you can check out my frosty snowdrops tutorial in my good friend Anna Mason’s school, where I explain the technique of including the magical ingredient (salt) to create the frosty background effect.

A little bit of water control and brush technique is needed throughout the layering process, and this robin is perfect for practicing those skills.

I work from a photo as a reference, and this is available to download on the robin tutorial page. You can use this photo as a guide too or, if you prefer, you can use my painting to guide you and pause the video as and when you would like.

What you’ll need:

If you don’t have the equipment and paints I recommend, get creative and try with what you have handy.

• My Robin photo as your reference.
• HB Pencil
• Mop paintbrushes – Rosemary & Co Size 0/3 and 10/0
• Daisy palette (for mixing watery paints)
• Water bowl
• Paper towel
• Salt to sprinkle
• Watercolour paper (I recommend Arches cold pressed paper)
• Paints (see colour list below). I use Winsor and Newton paints.

Paint colours needed:

• A yellow colour of your choice (I used Winsor lemon)
• A deep pink (I used Permanent Rose)
• A reddish-brown colour (I used Burnt Sienna)
• A darker brown colour (I used Burnt Umber)
• A blue colour (I used Cobalt Blue)
• A Black (I use Lamp Black)

I would also love to hear from you if you’ve already taken my FREE video watercolour class yet? Would you be willing to share your watercolour robin with me?

Please do email me your robin picture at [email protected] or share your robin painting on instagram using the hashtag #jenniferrosegallery

It would really make my day!

Love Jennifer Rose xx