By CraftingStepByStepPublished Updated
Based on a video by Art for Kids Hub.
This cartoon snowman is a great first winter drawing. He has big shiny eyes, a carrot nose, a cozy striped scarf and a red Santa hat, and every part is built from circles, curves and a few straight lines. The lesson comes from Rob at Art for Kids Hub, who draws it side by side with his daughter. It takes about ten minutes, and kids as young as five can follow along.
You need a black marker, a sheet of paper and something to color with. No pencil sketch is needed. If you feel nervous about ink, sketch lightly in pencil and trace over it when you like the shapes.
Most people draw a snowman as three stacked balls. This one starts with the eyes in the middle of the page and builds outward. The face sets the size of everything else. The hat lines up with the sides of the head, the scarf hangs off the chin, and the body drops down to the ground line last. You never have to squeeze a hat into a space that is too small.
The ground line decides the height of your snowman. Draw it low on the page and he turns into a tall, chubby snowman. Draw it closer to his scarf and you get a short, round little guy. Both work. On a letter-size sheet, keep the eyes about the size of a pea so the hat and arms still fit. Turn the paper tall, not wide.
Plain printer paper is fine for practice. For a drawing you want to keep, use a heavier sketch paper so the ink does not bleed. A fine point black permanent marker gives you the bold outline from the video. In the video the snowman is colored with colored pencils: red for the hat, orange for the carrot, red and green stripes on the scarf. Washable markers or crayons are easy picks for younger kids. Leave the body white, or shade the edges with light blue so the snow looks round. Our shading guide shows how.
A snowman drawing is handy all December. Draw a small one on the front of a folded card. Cut a few out and use them as Christmas gift tags. Teachers can run it as a classroom activity and tape the finished snowmen across a window. Want the real thing? Here is how to build a snowman outside once the snow sticks.
Want to add a snowy scene behind him? Try how to draw a tree. New to drawing? Start with how to draw for the basics.
10 steps · about 9 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Pick a spot in the middle of your paper. Draw two circles side by side, about the size of a pea, with a small gap between them. Inside each one, draw a tiny circle near the top right and an even smaller circle near the bottom. Color in the rest of each eye with your marker. Leave the two little circles white so the eyes look shiny and friendly.
Tip
Want a snow lady? Add three short eyelashes on the outside of each eye.
Under the eyes, draw a sideways V that points to the left. It can be wobbly. Keep it short, because a little nose looks cute. On the right side, close the open end with a backward C. That is the top of the carrot. Draw a few more backward C shapes down the length of the nose. Those curved lines give the carrot texture so it looks like a real one.
Tip
Point the carrot toward the side of the page, not straight down. It gives your snowman more personality.
Snowmen smile with bits of coal. Draw a row of small circles under the carrot that curves into a U shape. Mix big and small circles so it looks handmade. Let the row climb up a little on the far side of his face so he looks happy. Color in every circle with your marker. You want solid black dots, like lumps of coal pressed into the snow.
Tip
Start in the middle of the smile and work outward. It keeps both ends even.
Start beside the left eye and draw a big U shape. Bring it down under the smile, like a chin, and back up to the right side of the face. Leave a little white space between the line and the coal dots. Now close the top with a gentle curve that runs from one side of the head to the other. The face now sits inside a soft, round snowman head.
Tip
A slightly flat bottom on the head looks fine. The scarf will cover it in a minute.
From each side of the head, draw a short line that goes up. Connect the tops with a line across. That is the furry band of the hat. Above it and off to one side, draw a circle for the pom-pom. From the pom-pom, draw a line down into the band, lined up with the side of the head. Then draw one long curve from the pom-pom over to the other side of the band.
Tip
Let the band lines dip a little below the top of the head. It makes the hat look 3D, like it sits on him.
Under the chin, draw a short line coming down on each side of the head, the same way you started the hat band. Connect the bottoms with one big curve. Now add the stripes. Draw two stripes in the middle that curve in opposite directions. Every stripe on the left curves one way, and every stripe on the right curves the other. That bend makes the scarf wrap around his neck.
Tip
Draw the middle pair before the others. Use them as a guide for the rest of the stripes.
Draw a wobbly line across the lower part of the page for the snowy ground. Put it low if you want a tall snowman, or higher for a short one. From the left side of the scarf, draw a big curve that bows out and down until it touches the ground. Do the same from the right side of the scarf. You now have a round, chubby snowman body.
Tip
Make the body wider than the head. That size difference is what reads as a snowman.
Draw three circles down the middle of the body and color them in for coal buttons. Now give the scarf a tail. From the bottom of the scarf on one side, draw two lines hanging down. Curve them the same way the stripes on that side curve, so the tail looks like it lies on his body. Add stripes across it. Finish the end with a zigzag fringe between two short lines.
Tip
Space the buttons evenly. A quick way: put the middle one in the center of the body, then add one above and one below.
Snowman arms are sticks from a tree. From one side of the body, draw a wobbly line that reaches up and out. At the end, draw a small V for twig fingers, and add a tiny side branch if you like. Repeat on the other side. Then add little lumpy mounds of snow at the bottom of the body on each side, sitting on the ground line.
Tip
Keep the arm lines thin and uneven. Smooth arms look like pipes, not branches.
Put the marker down and grab your colors. In the video Rob uses colored pencils. Fill the Santa hat red and leave the band and pom-pom white. Color the carrot orange. Make the scarf stripes red and green, and the tail too. Leave the snowman's body white so he looks like fresh snow. Go over any outlines that got faint once you finish coloring.
Tip
Press lightly at first and build the color up. Colored pencil is hard to erase once it goes on dark.
Keep going
How to Draw a Christmas Tree
How to Draw a Snowman
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5 questions covering what you just read. No signup, no score saved, and you can stop after this one.
Question 1 of 5
Why start this snowman with the eyes instead of the body?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.Why start this snowman with the eyes instead of the body?
Answer: The face sets the size of everything else
The hat, scarf and body all line up with the face you drew first.
2.Why keep the carrot nose short?
Answer: A little nose looks cuter
Small features on a big face read as cute in cartoons.
3.What decides how tall or short your snowman turns out?
Answer: Where you draw the ground line
A low ground line stretches the body; a high one keeps him round.
4.How do the scarf stripes show that it wraps around his neck?
Answer: Stripes on each side curve opposite ways
Curving stripes follow the round shape of the neck.
5.How should you color the snowman's body?
Answer: Leave it white so he looks like snow
The paper itself is the snow, so the body stays uncolored.
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