For artists, cool things - literally - happen during the winter months. It’s a time when the light outside changes character, the trees drop their leaves, and the whole world takes on the glow of holiday lights. In terms of giving artists ideas for things to draw in their sketchbooks, it’s hard to beat the fresh palette and subject matter that December and the rest of the winter months give artists.
If you’ve been itching to take your sketchbook out and draw, then you’ll love these lists of Christmas- and winter-themed things to draw.
This section provides you with lists of things you can draw during the winter months. Some of them have to do with Christmas and other seasonal holidays. Some are purely winter themes: These give you ideas to draw after you take down your holiday decorations and start preparing for the new year to come.
Just a note: This list is meant to be evergreen. While you may not have the opportunity to paint the local Christmas market one year, that doesn’t mean you can’t paint it the next year. These lists are only intended to get the ideas flowing.
Video caption: Holiday-themed window decorations make for interesting sketchbook drawings when you’re looking for things to draw.
If you’re a big fan of drawing and painting in your sketchbook, then you’ll want to take advantage of these seasonal changes. Sketching and painting winter scenes from life teaches you about the changes in the light and color quality of the great outdoors. These are art lessons that are difficult to get from straight studio work alone.
By keeping a list of things to draw in your sketchbook, you’ll never run out of ideas for paintings. Your success as an artist relies a great deal on this.
Additionally, as anyone in our Mastery Program can tell you, we’re big advocates of painting and drawing a lot. This practice develops your skills in a number of ways. While it is true that you learn a lot just from putting brush to canvas, something more is going on when you take the time to draw and paint on the regular. You build up an image bank.
True enough, this image bank gives you ideas for paintings. However, it also teaches you what things are supposed to look like. In this case, when you paint and draw winter scenes, you begin to fill your subconscious mind with images of winter.
If you draw these things enough, you’ll begin to intuitively understand how the afternoon or evening light falls on the ground in winter as opposed to summer. You begin to understand that the colors of winter sunlight are different than the colors of summer sunlight.
This means that even when you draw winter scenes from memory, you’ll eventually know what the scene is supposed to look like, even if you don’t have a reference photo handy.
Finally, we recognize that it may be too cold to go outside and draw in your sketchbook. If that turns out to be the case, then why not try to do some urban sketching in your local coffee shop or local mall? If you really want to capture the winter light, nab a table by the window and start drawing.
If you can’t find a suitable place by a window, there will still be plenty of holiday- and winter-themed things to draw nearby. You win either way!
If you'd like to improve your drawing skills, join the Milan Art Community for professional workshops and an interactive community of artists from all over the world (free with any course purchase).
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