A guide to painting watercolour snowdrops

Using negative painting and texture techniques

What is Negative Painting?

Negative painting is a watercolour technique where you paint around a subject, rather than painting the subject itself.
In this workshop, we paint the dark background so the white snowdrops are created by the paper.

Why It’s Good to Learn

It helps you see shapes and spaces, not just outlines
The white paper gives a fresh, glowing light that paint can’t match
It creates strong contrast, making your subject stand out
It encourages loose, expressive painting (perfect for watercolour!)

✨ Trust the paper – it does a lot of the work for you.

Materials

Colours (suggested): Cerulean Blue · Indigo · Yellow · White

You’ll need: 2 brushes (one paint, one clean damp), cocktail stick, 300 gsm (cold pressed/NOT pressed) watercolour paper

1. Sketch

Lightly sketch or trace the snowdrops.
Keep lines very faint.

2. Mix Colours

Light green = yellow + a little cerulean blue
Darker green = indigo added

3. Paint the Petals

Use a very light indigo wash.
Paint petal tips and where petals overlap
Use a clean damp brush to soften.
While wet, scratch gentle curved lines with a cocktail stick on the bottom edges
Keep everything pale - very pale

4. Paint the Stems

Paint stems in light green.
Add darker green to shadow sides and overlaps.

5. Dry Completely

6. Paint the Background (Wet-in-Wet)

Carefully paint indigo around the flowers.
With a wet brush, pull colour outwards.
Add cerulean blue and water as you move away.
Work slowly and section by section.

While wet:

Splash water and a little white paint for snow texture

7. Finish

Add very light indigo washes for snow drifts.
Deepen shadows if needed once dry.
Splash white paint for snow around the sky area. A tooth brush works surprisingly well for this
Add a little indigo to the white and splash this on the snow to indicate falling snow
Lift soft light spots with a damp brush.

✨ Light washes, gentle layers, less is more.