The invention discloses a preparation method of a cellular reticular alginate porous material used as an artificial skin. The preparation method comprises: by taking sodium alginate or oxidized sodium alginate of which the relative molecular mass is more than or equal to 100000 as a solute, and deionized water, distilled water, normal saline, injection water or ringer's solution as a solvent, performing freeze forming by forming a vertical temperature gradient in a special forming mold, and performing crosslinking reaction to obtain a porous material, wherein the inside of the porous material is cellular, the porous material comprises a plurality of pores, the pore diameters of the pores change from big to small in gradient from the lower surface to the upper surface, the pore diameters of the pores on the upper surface are 5-70 mu m, the pore diameters of the pores on the lower surface are 50-200 mu m, and every two adjacent pores are communicated with each other and have skin bionic structures. The preparation method disclosed by the invention is simple, is easy to control and is low in manufacturing cost, and the prepared product is good and stable in quality, has a skin bionic structure, and has good hygroscopicity, biodegradability and biocompatibility.