Friday LIVE with John Cogley & DANIEL SMITH Brand Ambassador Sabine Dreher 

Join DANIEL SMITH Brand Ambassador Sabine Dreher for a quiet walk through a snowy forest as she demonstrates how to capture soft winter atmosphere, glowing snow, and elegant trees in DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolor. This Friday LIVE demo is filled with helpful tips for controlling value, creating luminous shadows, and building a peaceful winter landscape with transparent washes. Watch the demo, then follow along with our recap below to create your own snowy scene.

There’s something magical about a snowy landscape in watercolor. The quiet atmosphere, the soft edges, and the play of cool shadows against crisp highlights make winter scenes uniquely rewarding to paint. During a recent Friday LIVE, Brand Ambassador Sabine Dreher joined John Cogley to demonstrate her approach to capturing snowy forests and winter light using DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors. Her process is gentle, intuitive, and rooted in careful observation—perfect for painters looking to explore seasonal subjects.

In this blog, we’ll walk through key takeaways from Sabine’s demo, highlight useful techniques, and offer guidance to help you create your own snowy winter scene.

One of the most helpful reminders Sabine shares is that snow should never remain plain white paper from edge to edge. Snow reflects everything around it—the light, the sky, the trees—and its beauty lies in the subtle shifts between warm and cool tones.

Even in a stark winter forest, snow carries hints of blues, violets, soft grays, and reflected color from nearby objects. These delicate variations make a scene feel fresh and dimensional, and Sabine incorporates these shifts with transparency and restraint.

Sabine begins her winter landscape by creating a soft, atmospheric background:

• Wet-into-wet washes give the sky and distant forest a gentle blur, perfect for misty, cold days.
• She allows pigment to diffuse naturally, embracing watercolor’s softness rather than forcing sharp shapes too early.
• Leaving key areas untouched helps preserve natural highlights where snow will eventually sit.

This first stage is all about mood—quiet, calm, and cool.

To make the snow glow, Sabine deepens the surrounding values with purpose. As she moves into the mid-ground and foreground:

• She introduces darker tones for trees and branches, creating contrast that makes the snow appear brighter.
• Shadows are painted with transparent cool washes—never heavy or opaque—so the snow feels airy and luminous.
• By varying value and temperature, she ensures each snowy shape has form and contour, not flat white space.

Sabine’s balance of softness and contrast is what pulls the viewer into the landscape.

Sabine’s trees are a highlight of the demo. Her process includes:

• Light, directional strokes for slender trunks
• Layered values to create depth among overlapping trees
• Occasional lifting or softening of edges to mimic the way snow clings to branches
• Adding darker accents sparingly—just enough to define structure without overpowering the delicate atmosphere

She reminds us that winter forests contain both sharp details and gentle, hazy shapes. The trick is knowing what to sharpen and what to let soften.

Sabine’s palette for this demo includes cool, transparent pigments that layer gracefully. While every artist’s palette is personal, colors that work beautifully for winter scenes include:

• Phthalo Blue (Màu xanh lá cây)
• Chàm
• Màu xám của Payne
• Màu trung tính
• Màu xanh của Mặt Trăng
• Hoa oải hương
• Hoa hồng Quinacridone (for soft reflected light)
• Nâu cháy hoặc Màu nâu thô for tree trunks

These colors allow subtle temperature shifts and luminous shadows—two essentials for snow.

Sabine’s approach reminds us that snowy landscapes aren’t about painting “white”—they’re about painting ánh sáng. With a few thoughtful washes, intentional value shifts, and a focus on atmosphere, you can create a winter scene filled with quiet beauty.

Watch Sabine’s full demonstration.

We can’t wait to see the snowy scenes you create. Be sure to tag us @DanielSmithArtistsMaterials so we can share your work with our community.