A technique for creating frosty/snowy branches in watercolour

I found a lovely way to depict the look of frosty/snowy deciduous trees in watercolour by using salt, and I wanted to share my discovery with you! If you're familiar with watercolours, you've probably heard of the salt technique -- which is sprinkling salt granules in wet watercolour paint to create a fuzzy dappled effect. It's not a profound discovery on my part, but I hadn't thought to use salt for this subject before and I thought that sharing this may be useful/helpful to others. I hope you enjoy this blog post and I hope it's helpful for you if you are interested in learning to paint wintery scenes with watercolours!

I had decided to paint this winter scene the other day. It's from a spot right by the Winnipeg River where I live here in Canada. I was inspired by the bright blue sky contrasting against the fresh hoarfrost on the poplar trees. So, I thought about how I was going to recreate the look of the hoarfrost covered tree-line which I had never tried to paint before. Two techniques came to mind: water blooms and/or salt. So I tested both options out on the back of a piece of paper to see which one worked better.

Left: I painted the sky area wet on dry (wet paint on dry paper), then I added water to the bottom of the sky edge to push the blue back and create a bloom, and then I added some salt to the bloom edge. Right: Wet on dry, then I softened the edge just slightly and then added salt to the area where the tops of the trees would be in theory.

For the test on the left, I mainly relied on the added water imbalance to make the frosty tree line effect, and on the right I just used the salt. I thought both ways worked relatively well and both are definitely useable. However, I preferred the second test (right) because on the first test, the water imbalance created a darker hard edge where the sky had already dried -- and I didn't want that to happen on my final painting. Also, I liked the blue that was left in between the salt markings that resembled bits of sky peeking out between the branches. In the past I've had a love-hate view of the salt technique (mostly because I couldn't get it right), but in this past year I've grown to love it and I learnt how to use it more successfully.

If you are unfamiliar with using salt in your watercolour paintings, it's best to practise with it and test out how much salt to use and when to add it to the paint before using it in your paintings. When you put salt granules in wet paint they dissolve and push the pigment away (I believe that is how it works) , creating mini blooms and what looks like tiny down-feathers on the paper as it dries. But if the paint is extremely wet, when the salt dissolves you may not get much of an effect; if the paint is too dry, the salt will only dissolve partly and there with be salt granules stuck to the paper and they will leave a darker paint mark where they are/were. So it is important to find the happy middle-ground. Different paper, paint, and types/sizes of salt will all work together uniquely and make different effects. I just use regular table salt and I've found that with my paper it works best when the paint/paper is still quite wet -- not puddling, but still very glossy.

Now, onto the painting that I used this salt technique on... For the sky, I used Phthalo blue mixed with Quinacridone pink to warm up the tone a tiny pit. I could have used Ultramarine blue, Cobalt, or Cerulean blue as they are also good sky colours, but they are granulating pigments, and they don't work as well when used with the salt technique because they settle quickly and don't get repelled as easily by the salt like non-granulating paints do. They can still be used, but they won't create as much of an effect.

I put a thin layer of water on the sky area before I added the paint so it would slow the drying speed, then I gently softened the bottom edge of the sky (but I was careful to not create a water imbalance so that it wouldn't create any blooms at the edge) and once I was pleased with the sky it was time to add the salt. I sprinkled the salt when the paper was just starting to dry but still visibly shiny/glossy. Once it had dried I brushed away any remaining salt granules.

I then proceeded to paint the shadow colours of the mass of all of tree trunks and then used negative painting around the trees that I wanted in the foreground and the grass shapes. I didn't paint all the individual branches as I wanted to suggest that they are mostly covered with frost and because of that you wouldn't be able to distinguish all the small branches at the tops anyway. When using the salt technique the outcome will be unpredictable and you won't know what it will look like until it is completely dry. I usually have stray granules that leave marks where I didn't want there to be any. Lol!

This painting ended up being quite pale and pastel like, but I absolutely love that. I tend to paint with light colours and stray from intense bold contrast. I added tracks on the trail to give the painting some indication of life and direction into the scene. Once it was nearly done I painted some white details with gouache and added a little duochrome (sparkly) watercolours here and there to represent ice crystals catching sunlight. If you'd like a look into how I painted the entirety of this painting and all the different steps, here's the link to a blog post that I made specifically for this painting: https://artbycheyc.wixsite.com/artbycheyenne/post/new-painting-frosty-afternoon-walk

After I had completed the first painting, I decided to make a second one to further explore and practise. This second painting is much smaller than the first and is more of a practise sketch rather than a full painting.

Here is a second painting that I made with the same steps and techniques:

This painting is a little different than the first one; I wanted to continue with the things that I had discovered but do some things differently than before just to see what I liked best. I used the same colours (and I used some white gouache and sparkly paint like in the first painting) but made the contrast more intense and I added shadows in the grass sections. I like them both very much, but I do think that I prefer the paler tones of the first painting -- that's just my preference. This one has a different feeling to it due to the appearance of harsher light because of the darker shadows.

The final paintings don't necessarily look like the photograph as I didn't look back at it for reference once I had used the salt since the salt outcome more-or-less dictated the direction of the painting. I mainly went by memory and followed my intuition (which is more fun anyway!), but I really love the finished product and I believe I was able to capture the feeling of a frosty winter day nicely. Over all, I really like what I accomplished and what I learned/discovered from making these paintings makes me really happy! :)

Personally, I think using the salt technique is a fantastic way to depict hoarfrost/snow covered deciduous trees! Let me know what you think!

I hope the info in this blog post can be helpful!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post, email me at artbycheyc@gmail.com or you can contact me on my website here.

You can also sign up to my blog here to get notified when I make a new blog post.

Find me on these other social platforms: Instagram Facebook YouTube Pinterest

Til next time,

Cheyenne ~