Watercolor is so trendy right now, and I completely understand why. About two years ago, I fell in love with watercolors and since then I’ve spent many hours happily painting. One of the things I love most about watercolors is that you can create something gorgeous in half an hour with just a brush, a palette, and some paper. And in honor of July being national ice cream month, I’m going to show you how to paint watercolor ice cream cones.
Prepare your work area and your supplies. I like to use at least two jars of water (mason jars would work): one for rinsing brushes, and one to keep clear to use while you’re painting. IThese Prang watercolors are actually really amazing. Since they are semi-moist, it’s easy to get a lot of thick pigment. While this is a good thing, just remember to use lots of water. A little bit of paint goes a long way. I also like to use a spray bottle of water to quickly moisten the entire paint set at once.
Very lightly sketch out your ice cream cone shapes. You don’t need to sketch out a lot of details, just mark where the cones will be and generally where each scoop of ice cream will be. Mix some colors that you are planning on using and test them on scraps of paper. You can use the lid of this set to mix your paints if you don’t have an extra paint palette.
Start by painting your ice cream cones with a very watery base of light brown with your large round brush. Remember that with watercolors, you should rarely use your white paint. Instead use water to let the paper show through to create a light and subtle effect. Once you have painted the whole cone, add a dab of a slightly darker brown paint on one side to create a shadow. Since your first layer is still wet, the darker paint will spread and blend on its own.
Now paint an oval shape where your first scoop will be. Make sure you’re pretty happy with the shape first, then connect it to the cone. The two colors of paint will blend together a little bit.
Continue on and paint your other two scoops, but don’t connect them right away. Be sure to use a watery mix of paint for this step. You may want to experiment a little bit with how colors will blend together. Sometimes it’s a little unpredictable, but that’s one of the things that makes watercolors so much fun.
While your first layer is still wet, go back in and dab a thicker paint on top to create a little variation and texture. I didn’t do this with the mint color to make it look soft and smooth.
Connect the scoops of ice cream together. The colors will bleed together a little bit (which is just gorgeous). If they aren’t mixing at all, try adding a little more water/paint. You can even “push” one color into the other if you need to. However, usually all you have to do is slightly connect the two colors and the paint will do all the work.
Let this part completely dry. Go back and add anything else you’d like … sprinkles, chocolate chips, etc. Then add some texture to your cone. Using a small brush and slightly thicker brown paint, add criss-cross lines to your cone. Generally try to keep them straight and even, but they don’t need to be perfect. Let some of them go all the way to the first scoop of ice cream, and let some of them start a little lower.
Make sure your top scoop of ice cream is completely dry, and add a cherry on top. I like to paint a heart shape in red and then add a little stem in reddish brown.
And that’s it – you’re done! You can always go back in and add some more details and layers of texture, but I think these watercolor ice cream cones are especially beautiful because they’re loose and abstract.
If you’re looking for more watercolor tutorials that are great for beginners, check out these posts on my blog, Lines Across: Watercolor Pineapples, Watercolor Polka Dot Art, and Simple Watercolor Flowers.