How to draw a Christmas tree and a reindeer – step-by-step easy drawing tips

THOSE long Christmas holidays will leave you and your kids with lots of time on your hands - so why not pick up a new skill?

Here are some simple, yet effective drawing tips that can help you start in your journey to becoming an art whizz...

Drawing can be a struggle for many, but there are simple things you can do to improve

How to draw a Christmas tree

A helpful guide on WikiHow reveals how you can draw a simple Christmas tree in a jiffy.

You want to start off by drawing a flat-shaped triangle with a curved base, repeating the shape and overlapping at the top each time with two more, slightly smaller triangles.

Add a trunk and a base, and then add a star at the top, before drawing in baubles at each of the tips of the tree.

Then erase any pencil lines you don't need, go over the outline in pen and colour in a festive green - dotting baubles wherever you want.

This simple tree is easy to draw if you follow WikiHow's simple guide

How to draw a reindeer

You can draw a simple reindeer using this YouTube tutorial by DrawinGeek.

Starting with the outline of a head, you can follow the reindeer's shape one stroke at a time, until you end up with a cute cartoon critter.

YouTuber DrawinGeek shows how you can easily draw a simple cartoon reindeer

How can I learn to draw?

Tracing

If you are a real beginner, the good way to start getting to grips with proportions is to start by tracing.

It is a lot easier to copy the lines you see, rather than having to translate what you see onto paper.

Grab a drawing or photo and cover it with a thin piece of paper to start, drawing over any lines you see.

Faint sketching

The next step to learning to draw can be through faint sketching.

Use a pencil and some paper and extremely lightly draw out the outline of a basic shape, like a mug or pair of headphones, that you wish to translate to paper.

If you are a real beginner, tracing is an easy way to start getting to grips with proportions

According to art advice website Rapid Fire Art, this should be to the level where you can just about make out the shape.

Don’t worry if the initial sketch is very messy and doesn’t look like the shape.

As your initial sketch should be extremely faint, you can go back and refine the outline again, a little more firmly.

Use more confident and thicker lines to define the shape and eventually you should be left with a sketch that looks like a vast improvement on your initial shape.

Be aware of the overall shape

When you draw a shape, like a chair or bottle of water, the finished product can often end up looking wonky or lopsided.

A way to make a shape look more realistic is to see objects as a being made up of a series of simple shapes, like circles or triangles.

Sketching these shapes together will help to create the parts of the finished piece.

One of the most important points to remember is the overall shape of the object.

Add a faint outline of the object’s shape as a whole, so you have a framework in which to draw the smaller shapes.

How do you draw in 3D?

If you are looking to teach yourself how to draw in 3D, using lines can be a massive help

A simple way to master the art of making your drawing 3D is through the use of lined paper.

Although you can use pre-lined sheets for this, plain, white paper with pencil lines is preferable as the lines won't run through your drawing, and can be rubbed out after your work.

YouTuber David Hax demonstrated how you can draw a 3D wooden spoon or hand, and included the steps:

Draw round the object on your plain page
Use a ruler to draw horizontal lines in pencil about 1cm or less across your page, missing out the section inside your object
Connect up the lines in the middle of your object in waved, curved strokes so they look multi-dimensional
Add shading to enhance the 3D effect
Erase the horizontal lines so you are just left with the object.

If you are looking for some inspiration from the best, these amazing 3D drawings leap off the page and use a series of amazing optical illusions which make them look like 3D sculptures.

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