How to Draw a Snowman - Easy Step by Step

Easy Snowman Drawing

Most of us have some memories or experiences with building snowmen. But did you know they date all the back to the 1800’s? The history of snowmen is really quite fascinating. So in the spirit of the tradition, I’d like to show you how to draw a snowman with a hat.

The cool thing about drawing snowmen is that they are super easy to draw. But you can also change them up a bit, and add things to them, to make a completely different drawing. Which makes drawing snowmen a really fun to draw and a great opportunity to experiment.

So let’s get started by taking a look at the art supplies used for this art tutorial.

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Art Supplies

Drawing with Shapes

As we do with many of our drawings, we will begin by laying out some basic shapes. This is really easy when learning how to draw a snowman, because they are basically just three circles stacked on top of each other.

However, with more complex drawings, it’s crucial to begin your drawing with basic shapes. You can learn more about this in Using Shapes to Draw.

Start drawing your snowman by drawing the largest of your three circles at the bottom of your paper.

I’m using cardstock, but you can use whatever type of paper you want.

I’m also using my Pentel mechanical pencil, which is my absolute favorite pencil to use for my drawings.

Next, draw a slightly smaller circle for the middle of your snowman. Allow your two circles to overlap a little bit. This will make your snowman drawing look more natural.

Your snowman can have two or three sections. If you want it to have three, draw the third one smaller than the other two circles.

Now it’s time to start adding in all of the details for your snowman. We’ll begin by drawing the face.

How to Draw a Snowman Face

When drawing your snowman’s face, think about what you would use when building a real snowman.

What you would use to make the eyes, nose, and mouth? How does that song go… “With a corncob pipe and a button nose, and two eyes made out of coal”.

Typically, when building an actual snowman, you’d use whatever you had access to. Mostly it was whatever we could find around the yard so we didn’t get our butts kicked by Mom.

Start by drawing your snowman’s eyes. You can draw circles, buttons, or a more organic shape that looks like a rock or coal.

Next, draw the nose. Your typical snowman drawing will have a carrot for the nose. But don’t limit yourself to that idea. Your nose can be whatever you want it to be.

For the mouth you can draw a smile or draw several circles to form the mouth. Or maybe your snowman has a stick for his mouth. Be creative.

Scarf Drawing and Snowman Arms

Now it’s time to decorate your snowman and give him some arms.

I like adding a top hat to my snowman. But you could also draw a different type of hat, or go with no hat at all. We have a tutorial on how to draw a top hat if you need some help.

If you want your snowman to have a scarf, draw that in now too. We have a full tutorial on how to draw a scarf.

Most snowmen are drawn with sticks for the arms. But this is not your only choice. If you do use sticks as the arms, think about what a stick actually looks like. Most sticks are not perfectly straight.

This snowman is a pretty basic drawing. But it could easily be turned into something more complex, as seen in the video or in the examples below. But the steps are the same regardless of how detailed your snowman is.

Let’s take a look at some slightly more advanced drawings.

Variations of Snowman Drawings

Below are some examples I did to show some variation and more advanced drawings. Something like this is much more interesting to an older student.

Play around with your snowman and have fun drawing them. Experiment with different ideas and see what you can come up with.

Coloring with Markers

You can use whatever medium you like to finish up your snowman. Or leave it as a graphite drawing and just add in some shading.

I typically use either markers or colored pencils for my drawings. Lately I’ve been using markers more than anything. I love how bright and colorful they are.

My usual method for finishing my artwork is to outline my drawing with a Pitt Artist pen. And then fill in my color with the Bic Intensity marker set.

How to Draw Better Snowmen

The only way to get better at drawing snowmen, or anything for that matter, is with practice. And lots of it. The more you draw, the better you will get.

I almost always do my drawings on artist trading cards. They are smaller, so they take less time. And I get the added enjoyment of trading them for other artist’s work. It’s a win-win.

If you’re not familiar with making and trading ATCs, take a look at How to Make Artist Trading Cards (ATCs).

I have a hard time coming up with creative ideas for drawing snowmen. What ideas do you have that haven’t been mentioned here?

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