How to Paint a Snowman in the Snow

Co-authored by Virginia Kelley, MA

Last Updated: January 2, 2025

Enjoy winter fun outdoors even if you never actually experienced snow firsthand. Any scene you can imagine is possible through the medium of artwork! Travel to exotic places, have any weather you desire and live vicariously through painting. It's virtually free and if the art piece isn't successful, remember, it's only a sheet of paper. Toss it away and try again. This article will teach you how to draw a simple snowman and paint it.

Part 1

Part 1 of 2:

Drawing

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1
Draw a snowman. Take a pencil, ensure you're holding it properly and draw in the middle of a piece of heavy paper.
- The snowman will be made up of three circles with the largest at the bottom, getting smaller going upwards to the top.
- Give the head features with black spots. Draw a carrot for the nose. Make coal buttons on the body.
- Sticks on each side of the middle ball act as makeshift arms.
- Draw a hat and scarf.
2
Sketch a pine or evergreen tree on the right side. Start with the trunk, tapering and concealing it partially as it goes upward. Cluster branches with needles or foliage clumps.

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3
Add a touch of warm-blooded life with a squirrel. You can draw a squirrel out of two circles—larger for the body and smaller for the head. Complete other body parts by adding a bushy tail, drawing two ears standing upright and adding features to its face.
4
Divide the space or snow-covered ground with horizontal lines. Make the horizon line where the earth and sky meet in the scene two-thirds of the way up. Draw it with a line.
5
Finish the drawing with some background details, like extra snowmen and more bushes. These do not need to be as detailed as the main elements. Consider adding two or more triangles for the distant pines and making a crescent-shaped moon high in the sky.

Part 2

Part 2 of 2:

Painting

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1
Paint the scene. Use watercolors or poster paints. Consider using a white plastic picnic plate as your palette. Dilute any colors you use slightly with water. Use a pointed brush for the details.
- Have a large plastic container to rinse your brush.
- Put out paper napkins or an old terry towel for wiping your brush.
- Dab your brush to lessen the amount of paint on it.
2
Paint the snowman. Sketch the snowman's outline in brown, purple or black. Paint its hat black or brown and accent it with a scarf in a bright color like orange. Use branches for arms and paint the facial features and buttons in a dark color.
- Paint the snowman's details only. Allow the white of the paper to be his body.
3
Paint the large pine tree. Use brown for the trunk and shades of green for the needles. Use strokes that start at the middle, and go to each side, and lift the brush as you approach the end of each stroke.
4
Paint the sky. Use a shade of cool colors like violet, blue or lavender. Consider outlining and detailing any additional background figures you might have drawn, like extra snowmen or pines.
5
Paint the squirrel. Use colors like brown or gray to match their skin color in real life.
6
Dilute the colors on your palette when they're dry that you have been using and lightly swipe on shadows being cast by the tree, distant snowmen and the squirrel. Dab random tracks in the snow.
Allow your piece to dry thoroughly and use the brush on a bottle of correction fluid or a small pointed brush with opaque white poster paint to make falling snowflakes.