This simple snowman drawing can be a great introduction to the concept of proportion for younger students, using nothing more than their own hand to measure and help point out the size differences in the snowman. Super easy and effective!

Proportion is a principles of design that explores the size relationship between two or more elements in an artwork.

In this project, it is the size of each of the snow balls compared to one another. When an artwork has correct proportions it will help give the artwork a feeling of unity and make sense visually.

Often times, proportion is something that young students can see, but might not have the skills to express verbally yet. When they see something in their artwork that is out of proportion, they might say something “just doesn’t look right”, but be unable to explain why. By using their hands to measure position and size on their paper, it can help them to start to understand the spatial relationship between their paper, the drawing and the sizes of different elements in their artwork in proportion to one another.

Watch the full video tutorial here…

Click the image below to DOWNLOAD the December Project Guide which includes the Snowman Drawing Guide…

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

White 12″ x 18″ white sulphite paper

Black oil pastel or crayon

Cake tempera paints (including blue)

DRAWING THE SNOWMAN

Put your hand sideways at the top of your paper, with your pinky finger touching the top. Use your oil pastel to make a small dot right underneath your thumb. This will be the top of the head.

Use a circle tracer (like a small plastic container) to trace a circle with the top touching the dot you just made.

Place your hand inside the circle. Spread your fingers out to see if you can fill the circle with your hand.

Move your hand to the bottom of your paper. Keep your fingers spread out. Use an oil pastel to draw a large upside-down “U” shape from the bottom of your paper up around your hand and down to the other side.

Notice how much bigger the bottom circle is in proportion to the circle for the head. In real life, the bottom of a snowman has to be bigger, or it would topple over.

Connect the head to the body with a curved line on each side.

Measure one finger-width from the top of the head and draw a straight line for the brim of the hat. Draw a rectangle on top. Or create your own hat!

PAINTING THE SNOWMAN & BACKGROUND

Set out cake tempera paints in a variety of colors, including blue.

Dip your brush in blue, then paint a curved line around the inside of the smallest circle. The line should follow the circle with not paint in the middle. Paint each circle in the same way. This will give your snowman a round, 3-dimentional look.

Add more water to your paint if it’s too dark.

Paint the background with as many or as few colors as you want. Use both up and down and side to side brush strokes to smooth out the paint.

One of the wonderful things about cake tempera is that it dries very quickly, so you should be able to move to the next step without much drying time.

ADDING DETAILS

Color the hat in with oil pastel, then add two circles for the eyes and color them in black. Draw a triangle on its side with an orange oil pastel for a carrot nose. Color it in. Add smaller black circles in a curve to make a smiling mouth.

Draw a long line for each arm out of the middle section. Add three short lines for the fingers.

Click HERE for more Deep Space Sparkle winter art lessons.

Click on the image below to DOWNLOAD the December Project Guide. Add your name and email and we’ll send it straight to you!