Today’s painting project is a super fun one – I’ll show you how to paint a snowman! Even better, we are going to paint the snowman on a porch leaner, so you can display your handiwork on your doorstep for everyone to enjoy.

How to Make a Porch Leaner

If you have no idea what a porch leaner is, let me explain. You probably have even seen these before without realizing they had a name!

A porch leaner is simply a piece of art or a saying that’s painted on wooden slats that are joined together, or on one single wide piece of wood.

How you make these can vary, and the dimensions can vary too! This one is four feet tall and about 18″ tall.

The really fun thing about a porch leaner is that you can often use both sides of it. I like to do a fall-themed design on one side, and a holiday theme on the other. When seasons change, all you have to do is flip it.

How to Paint a Snowman Sign

This post (and video) will show you exactly how to paint a snowman sign from start to finish. I’ll even let you in on my secret weapon to give it that wow factor. You’ll love having this painted snowman on your porch this year—plus it would make a super fun gift for someone else too.

The video below will walk you through each of the steps detailed below. If you are more of a visual learner, skip down to the video and paint with me!

1. Freehand the Snowman

Yup, we are going to freehand this guy. But, it’s not as hard as it looks! I’ll show you exactly how to tackle it in the video below (I do mine on a napkin first).

Remember, it’s just paint! We can always figure out a way to fix it whether it’s wiping it off, painting a different layer, or just starting all over. It happens. Art isn’t supposed to be perfect, so just enjoy the journey. 😉

Once you have your snowman outlined (don’t forget the hat!), rinse the brush and get it nice and wet to get even more coverage. The paint will apply a lot quicker with a wet brush. I use DecoArt craft paint in the color Snow.

2. Apply the Snowflake Stencil

I am a HUGE fan of Essential Stencils. Plus, you can get a 20% discount off stencils with coupon code TEXASHEIDI. They have all kinds of super cute designs there!

On this painted snowman sign, I use several different stencils. I just add them in any blank areas that I feel need some jazzing up.

When stenciling, don’t forget to offload – you need to dip it, then dab some paint off before blobbing the paint in. Technical term, but it makes sense when you watch the video! This is truly my form of art therapy – dabbing the stencil is a great way to get out the aggression. 🙂

3. Add the Scarf

You can use whichever colors you’d like for the scarf. Personally, I used DecoArt Festive Green and Yellow Green. Apply the Festive Green as the base of the scarf, then add a bit of the Yellow Green on top to give it a little highlight.

Then, I added a darker green to give the scarf definition. The one I chose was Hauser Dark Green, but again, use whichever color you’d like! Add it to the edge of the scarf and bring it in a bit.

Note: make sure you shake the paint well before using it. Otherwise the paint will be really oily and a bit separated. You’ll see in the video what it looks like when you don’t shake well. Thankfully, I was able to just paint over my mistake – easy peasy.

4. Detail the Face

I drew my face out when I did my napkin sketch, then freehanded the face onto my painted snowman.

For this part I used a detail brush. I started by doing ovals for the eyes, then did the nose and the dotted smile.

Initially, his eyes looked a little creepy. To fix this, we have to add a center of the eye. This part is super easy! I just do it wet on wet, so you don’t need to wait for it to dry or anything.

5. Finish the Snowman’s Details

While you have your detail brush out, go ahead and add a bit of fringe to the scarf too! I also recommend outlining the scarf to give it even more definition.

Then, take your big brush and paint black on top of the white hat. Blend the colors together and make it gray. Next, take that detail brush we were using before and do some fun squiggles on the hat. Give that a minute or two to dry then come back in with the bigger brush and add a bit of green for a variation to the hat.

Rinse out your detail brush and paint in the snowman’s nose. I did something fun and used this pretty 24 Karat Gold DecoArt Metallic. But you could also stick with a normal orange or red if you prefer. I didn’t have those colors on hand (long story!) so I just had to work with what I had on-hand…getting creative and doing your own thing is the fun part of art!

6. Add a Few More Snowflakes

If you like, you can go in and add a few more snowflakes. I added just a couple more, but you could also add some fun word stencils or just leave the snowflakes more sparse.

7. How to Paint a Snowman with Glitter Glue!

I call this one my secret weapon, but I’ll let you in on it…glitter! DecoArt’s Craft Twinkles is the BEST! I like to use the Crystal one basically everywhere. I squirt it right on to my painted snowman and rub it in all over his belly. You could use a brush, but why pass up the opportunity to fingerpaint?

8. Let Dry

Now that you know how to paint a snowman, let’s talk about preserving that hard work. Let your piece dry for a day or two. Then, give it a protective top coat. I use clear poly spray, because I find it easier than brushing a top coat on. It also gives it a little bit of a glossy finish too, which is fun.

Video: How to Paint a Snowman

Give this video a watch and paint alongside with me! It’ll take just about 30 minutes from start to finish, and will look SO cute on your porch!

That’s it, everyone! I hope you enjoyed learning how to paint a snowman. I know I had a blast. 🙂

More Snowman Art:

• Paint an Easy Snowman in 3 Steps
• Paint Big Snowman Challenge
• How to Use Tracers for Big Snowman