Holiday Inspired DIY Watercolor Reindeer by Zakkiya of Inkstruck Studio. This post may contain affiliate links. Your cost is the same but it helps support this site and the fun freebies we share. See our full disclosures here.
Holiday Inspired DIY Watercolor Reindeer
Hello there! I’m Zakkiya of Inkstruck Studio and I’m one of the newer contributors here at Dawn’s amazing blog. I’m a self taught artist and I love creating tutorials and DIYs especially in watercolor.I’m pretty nervous yet excited to be sharing my first post here. I hope you love it as much as I enjoyed creating it. Before I delve further, I’d like to mention that you don’t need to use the exact materials and brands I’ve mentioned here. They’re just for reference. You can use whatever you have at home; even your toddlers Crayola set 🙂
Our neighbors generally leave for their hometown during Christmas. But this time, they decided to stay back. And since I love gifting anything that’s handmade,I decided to create a DIY watercolor reindeer for her. She makes amazing cinnamon rolls and since I’m hopeless in the kitchen,this was my best shot. You can try making this too! Not only is it fun but creative too.
Materials you’ll need:
- Arches watercolor paper
- Sennelier watercolor paints
- Silver black velvet watercolor brushes
- Palette
- Pencil
Step 1: Print a reindeer template such as this one by “All Thyme Favorite“. I don’t own a fancy light box, so I made use of my window to trace on watercolor paper.
Step 2:Gather your supplies and start painting.I started by filling in with different elements like spruce and berries.You may use any Christmas inspired element of choice.If you’re just getting the hang of watercolor, draw with a pencil first. Very lightly!
Step 3: I then added mistletoes and poinsettias to make it even more Christmas inspired. I also painted branches and acorns for a wintery feel. Continue painting.
Step 4: This is my favorite part.Painting the antlers! Try making the antlers whimsical. Add elements following the pencil guideline ending in a flourish.
Step 5: I looked it at from a distance and decided the shape needed to be adjusted.I added some more elements in the nose are to get the silhouette right.
If you enjoyed this DIY watercolor reindeer tutorial, you may love these watercolor tutorials too.
If you’d like to see behind the scenes, Instagram is where I post everything! Other places you can find me are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Periscope. Thanks for reading! Have a lovely day.
kate says
December 6, 2015 at 2:12 pmthisis so beautiful I actually cried
Dawn Nicole says
December 6, 2015 at 4:12 pmThat is so sweet! Thank you!!
Oats says
December 6, 2015 at 4:44 pmThanks much for this tutorial, Zak and Dawn! ^_^ I’d love to give this a shot real soon. Hope mine still looks like a reindeer and not anything else. Hahaha!
Dawn Nicole says
December 7, 2015 at 1:13 pmThank you Oats! I’m so happy to have Zakkiya on my team! I literally squealed when she emailed me. I’ve been following her some time! 🙂