Santa from the shoulders up, because a whole figure spends four of its six steps on a coat. A circle for the face, the beard hung off it, then the hat brim, the hat, the shoulders, and the face itself last of all. Six panels on the first sheet with a single instruction under each, and a second sheet of empty boxes once the order is in your head.
Head and shoulders is what keeps it easy
Most Santa lessons start at the boots. By the time the coat, the belt, the sack and the mittens are on the paper there is one panel left for the face, and the face is the only part of Santa a child sat down to draw.
This one stops at the shoulders. The face circle takes the middle of the box, the beard gets room underneath it to be big, and the hat gets the whole top. Six steps covers all three with two to spare for the shoulders and for the eyes, nose and moustache.
It is also the one to hand to a child who says they cannot draw. Look at what the six panels actually ask for: a circle, a wobbly U, a rectangle lying on its side, a curve with a ball on the end, two lines running down to the edge of the box, and five small marks. Not one of them needs a steady hand.
A beard, not a chin
The beard is the shape the whole drawing stands on and it is where this one goes wrong. Drawn narrow, hugging the underside of the circle, it reads as a chin, and the finished picture is a man in a red hat. The beard has to come out wider than the face.
The instruction is 'Hang a big bushy beard from each side of the circle', and the word doing the work is 'from'. Both ends sit on the face circle at its widest point rather than floating beside it, and the sides swing out past the circle before they curve back in. The bottom edge is a row of scallops instead of a flat line, which is what stops it reading as a bib.
That is also why it is drawn second. Put the hat on at step two and the beard is left squeezed into whatever room is still going at the bottom of the box. With the beard down first it takes the space it needs, and everything after it hangs off something already on the paper.
Circle, beard, brim, hat, shoulders, face
Step one is 'Draw a big circle in the middle of the page. That is his face.' In the middle, not at the top: the hat needs the room above it and the shoulders need the room below.
Step two hangs the beard. Step three is the easiest panel on any drawing sheet here, 'Draw a wide band across the top of his face for the hat brim', which is a rectangle lying on its side across the upper part of the circle. Step four stands the hat on that rectangle and lets it flop over to one side, finishing in a round bobble where it lands.
Step five brings two curves down from the outer corners of the beard to the bottom edge of the box, joined by a line across, and those are the shoulders. Step six is the face: two dot eyes above a round nose, then a moustache in two halves meeting under it. Five small marks and it is done.
Questions
- What is the easiest way to draw Santa?
- Draw only the head and shoulders, and put the beard on before the hat. A circle, a wide beard hung from each side of it, a rectangle for the hat brim, the hat, the shoulders, then the face. Six steps, none of which needs a steady hand.
- How do you draw a Santa beard?
- Start each end on the face circle at its widest point, swing both sides out past the circle, and finish the bottom edge as a row of scallops rather than a straight line. A beard that stays inside the circle reads as a chin instead.
- Why is only the top half of Santa drawn?
- Because a whole figure uses four of the six steps on a coat and boots and leaves one for the face. Head and shoulders gives the beard and the hat the whole box, and those two shapes are what make a drawing read as Santa at all.
- What age is this Santa drawing lesson for?
- Five and up if somebody reads the instruction under each panel aloud, and on their own from about seven. The only shape that catches anyone out is the beard, and getting that wide enough is a matter of being told rather than of skill.
- Can I draw the hat without the flop?
- Yes. The flop is one curve with a bobble at the end, and a straight cone with the bobble on top works just as well. The brim stays exactly where it is either way, because the hat stands on the brim rather than on the head.