Use bright pastels on black paper to create this magical chalk pastel winter cabin art project. Kids will explore drawing, layering, and blending with chalk pastels. Chalk pastels are always fun for kids to try and you only need a few simple supplies!

Take a look at my collection of chalk pastel art for more creative ideas kids will love.

For another beautiful winter landscape art project using chalk pastels, take a look at this stunning northern lights art! There are two different examples in the post, one with mountains and one with trees.

Create your own chalk pastel winter cabin art project

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Supplies

• Chalk pastels
• Black drawing paper (or black construction paper)
• White colored pencils for drawing
• Paper towels

Tips for working with chalk pastels

Chalk pastels can be messy (but so fun!). There are a few things you can do to help keep some of the mess contained:

• Put newspaper down on desks or tables
• Put your project on a tray or a shallow cardboard box which will keep most of the mess inside the tray 
• You can try doing your project outside 
• Have lots of paper towels handy 
• Once you are done with your project (or even halfway through if it gets really dusty), take it outside to gently blow or shake off the excess dust
• If you are using chalk pastels in the classroom and the kids are ready to take their artwork home, simply place the art between some newspaper to keep it from smudging and for easy transport.

Instructions for your winter art project

1. Start by getting your paper ready. We used black drawing paper for this project but you can also try black construction paper. Construction paper will not look as bright with the chalk pastels, but will still look great.

Use a white colored pencil to draw your winter scene, this will help it show up better on the black paper.

Follow along with the photo above and begin with a simple cabin shape and snowline. Draw in the cabin details by adding windows, a door, and a chimney.

Draw in the trees on either side of the cabin. Finally, add in the stone path on the snow. You want to keep your drawing simple, you will add more details with your pastels.

2. Using 1-3 shades of red, color in your cabin. Add some shading with the darker red along the roof line and windows and doors. Gently blend the colors together.

3. Use a yellow pastel to fill in the windows and brown pastel for the door. I ended up going over my windows with a lighter, more subtle shade of yellow towards the end, which I think looks better.

4. Outline the windows and doors with black chalk pastel and draw in a small door handle. Remind kids to be careful with this step, black chalk pastel can be quite smudgy and you don’t want any of your colors to get muddy. This step should be done slowly and carefully.

5. Use white pastel to draw some snow around the roof and hanging down off the roof. As you draw with white pastel, take care not to smudge it into the red cabin color (it’s ok if that happens a bit).

6. Color in the chimney with a light shade of brown. Use a darker brown to add some shading near the bottom and top of the chimney like in the photo above, this doesn’t need to be blended.

7. Next, it’s time to color in the trees. Start with two shades of green and color in your trees. Once you are done coloring the trees, you can use your finger to gently blend the colors together.

8. Choose a lighter shade of green and draw some highlights in your trees. Use your finger to carefully blend some of the highlights in, and leave some unblended. Kids can go over this step a couple of times if needed.

9. Time to add in the snow. Use a white chalk pastel to draw snow on the trees. Draw on as much or as little snow as you like.

Use white chalk pastel to color in the foreground, this might take a couple of layers depending on the type of pastels you are using. Do not color the stone path with white pastel.

Before you move on, take a minute to look at your sky and clean up any smudges with an eraser.

10. Use two shades of grey to color the stone path. Start with light grey, and color in the stepping stones, blending as needed. Then add in shading with a dark grey, you can blend some of the shading in and leave some of the dark grey unblended.

Having some parts of your pastel art project blended and some parts unblended adds to the texture and depth of your artwork.

11. Draw in some subtle reflections on your snow to show the reflection of the surroundings. Use a light blue, green, and red pastel to carefully and lightly draw on the snow in a few areas.

You can see in the photo above that I used very little color in just a few areas of the snow in the foreground.

12. Use grey chalk pastel to draw in the smoke from the chimney.

13. Use two shades of yellow to draw and color in a crescent moon in the sky. Try adding a small amount of white around the moon and smudging a bit to make it look like it’s glowing.

14. For the final step, dot on falling snow to complete your cozy winter cabin scene.

Carefully touch up any areas that need some extra color or definition.

This is such a beautiful snowy winter scene that makes a great winter art project idea!

More winter art ideas kids will love

Easy Chalk Pastel Winter Tree Art Project

Chalk Pastel Hot Chocolate Art Project

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