How to Draw Santa

Follow these steps to learn how to draw Santa! This easy Santa drawing tutorial was designed to be simple enough for beginners and kids to follow. 

1. Start with the eyes and eyebrows.

   You can give your Santa drawing any style of eyes you want. I went for a cute, simple design with eyelashes, but you could also do simple dots, closed eyes, or kawaii eyes too. Don’t forget to outline some bushy eyebrows; these will be left white later.
   
   

2. Add the nose, moustache, and mouth. 

   First, draw the oval for Santa’s nose. Then add the two shapes coming off the bottom of the nose, just underneath. These will form the moustache. Finally, join the two shapes with a semi-circle under the nose to make the mouth.

3. Draw the face shape and santa hat.

   Rather than draw the face and then the beard, I like to draw the beard around the face in my cute Santa art doodles. You can do these steps in any order, but it might be easier to define the hat’s brim first. It should be positioned just over the eyebrows.
   
   From there, draw the cheeks and join them about halfway into each side of the mustache. This will give Santa a face. 
   
   Finally, add the rest of the hat shape and finish it off with a puffy ball pom-pom to the top of the hat.
   

4. Give Santa a beard.

   You don’t need to copy the Santa’s beard design exactly; this is a great place to get creative! Traditional Santa drawings usually give Santa a bushy beard all around, but I wanted to create a flowy look in my art. 
   

5. Add the body.

   Now for Santa’s body! Again, it’s just basic shapes joined onto the face we’ve already drawn. Try and imagine where Santa’s shoulders would be, then start your lines from there against the beard. If you’re not sure where to begin, parallel to Santa’s cheek is usually a good spot.
   
   Draw one slightly slanted line on each side, then join at the bottom to create a bell shape for his belly. Add a second thinner curved line rectangle underneath. This will be the trim on Santa’s suit.

6. Give Santa some legs and boots.

   Sticking again to basic shapes, start from the bottom of Santa’s coat to draw two legs for his lower body. The legs should be slanted inward, basically a reverse from the larger shape you drew for the body. Give the legs a flat line on the bottom.
   
   Next, draw the boot shape with a curve on the outer side. Finally, add another line just above each boot on the leg for the pant’s fur trim.
   
   

7. Add a belt.

   Now that we have Santa’s basic shape done, it’s time to add his belt. To draw the buckle, first start with a rectangle in the middle of Santa’s body just above the coat trim. Next, add the smaller rectangle inside to give the belt buckle definition.
   
   Finally, attach the belt to each side with two parallel lines. The lines should be curved slightly to follow the shape of Santa’s body to make it look wrapped around. An easy way to do this is to just maintain the same distance between the trim and the belt. 
   

8. Give him arms.

   The only thing missing now is Santa’s arms! I did one up and one down so it looks like he’s waving, but you can pose your Santa any way you want. 
   
   To draw the arms, add two parallel lines on the upper body in the direction you want Santa’s arm to go. I like to start them a bit wider at the shoulder and add a slight curve to both the arm shape and the end of the sleeve. 
   
   Once you have your arms drawn, add an extra line on the sleeves to define the coat’s white fur, just like we did for the pants.
   
   Santa is always wearing mittens, which is great for beginner artists because they’re a lot easier to draw than fingers. The gloves with a thumb are still a bit tricky, though, so may want to practice the shape on a scrap piece of paper first. Or omit the thumb altogether, if you prefer.

9. Color him in

   Once you’re happy with your Santa drawing it’s time to color him in! Fill Santa with any shades and art supplies you like, or use this example as inspiration to practise your art shading technique. 
   
   To make the lines pop, I recommend tracing over them again in black once you’re done.