Christmas card drawing gets a lot more fun once you stop trying to fit a whole scene onto a tiny card front and let one cozy animal carry the picture instead. A robin on a branch, a stag with snow on his antlers, a sheep wrapped in a red scarf: each one fills the page on its own, works in colored pencil, and reads clearly even on a small card.
Below are 29 animal and snowman scenes you can draw and color in a single sitting, arranged from the simplest shapes to the more detailed woodland pairs. Pick whichever one matches the mood of the person getting the card, keep your colors clean and bright, and let plenty of white paper show through for snow.
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Start where this whole list starts: a robin perched on a snowy branch above a frozen stream, since round shapes and a short body make it the friendliest first subject in colored pencil. Pencil a soft oval for the body and a smaller circle for the head, then add the branch underneath running diagonally so the stream can curve away behind it.
Work the orange red breast first with cherry red, keeping the stroke direction following the curve of the chest, then build the brown back with short overlapping hatching so the feathers read as texture rather than a flat shape. Leave the branch and the stream bare white paper apart from a thin grey shadow line under the snow ridges.
The mistake that spoils this one is making the head the same size as the body, which flattens the robin into a blob. Keep the head noticeably smaller and round, and the proportion falls into place on its own.
If you do not have cherry red, a warm orange red marker or pencil works as a substitute for the breast. Tip for today: sketch the branch line before the bird so the pose sits naturally along it rather than floating above it.
Palette: Cherry Red,Burnt Umber,Pine Green,Soft Grey
Move from a small bird to a bigger subject: a stag standing in a frosty birch wood with snow on his antlers, which rewards you for getting the proportions right before any color goes down. Measure the leg length against the body first, roughly one body length from chest to hoof, so the stag does not end up short and pony-like.
Draw the birch trunks as pale vertical shapes with soft grey bark marks, then build the stag’s body with warm umber and burnt sienna hatching that follows the direction of the fur. Add the antlers last, keeping them slightly asymmetrical for a natural look, and dot white gel pen along the tips for snow.
Where this goes wrong is drawing the antlers too delicate and spindly, which makes them disappear against the trees. Thicken the base of each antler branch and taper only toward the tips.
No white gel pen on hand, a kneaded eraser dabbed onto finished pencil work lifts the same soft snow highlight. Tip for today: pencil the trunks first and let the stag overlap them, which instantly gives the drawing depth.
You Will Need
- white gel pen
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Soft Grey,Sky Blue,White
Keep the mood cozy with a sheep in a red knitted scarf grazing beside a snowy stone wall, a shape that is really just a cloud-like body on four short legs. Block in the woolly outline with small looping pencil strokes rather than one smooth line, which gives the fleece its bumpy texture straight away.
Color the wool with soft grey and a touch of white left bare for highlights, then add the scarf in cherry red with a few horizontal hatch lines to suggest knit stitches. The stone wall behind her goes in last, built from irregular grey blocks with a thin cap of white snow along the top.
The common slip here is drawing the legs too long, which turns a sheep into a goat. Keep them short and slightly hidden under the wool so the body reads as round and low.
Without a cherry red pencil, a red marker under light pencil hatching gives the same scarf color. Tip for today: scribble the fleece texture before you commit to the outline, it hides any wobble in your line.
Palette: Soft Grey,Cherry Red,Slate Grey,White
Give yourself a break from fur and feathers with a snowman with a carrot nose waving from a hilltop at dawn, a subject built almost entirely from circles. Stack three circles of decreasing size, keep the bottom one widest, and sketch the hilltop as a single curved line beneath his feet.
Leave the snowman himself as bare white paper, since colored pencil only needs to add the carrot nose in orange, coal eyes and buttons in soft grey, and a thin scarf in pine green or cherry red. The dawn sky behind him is where the color does the real work: blend pale pink into sky blue with light, even strokes near the horizon.
Drawing him too narrow at the base is the usual mistake, making him look like he might tip over. Widen that bottom circle more than feels natural and he instantly looks steady on the hill.
If your pencils do not blend smoothly for the sky, try laying the pink first and the blue second in loose strokes rather than pressing hard to merge them. Tip for today: angle one twig arm up in a wave and the whole character feels alive.
Palette: White,Orange,Pale Pink,Sky Blue
Bring in a night scene with a snowy owl watching from a pine bough under a crescent moon, where the eye level does most of the storytelling. Place the horizon low on the page so the owl and the moon both sit against a tall stretch of sky, which gives the picture a quiet, watching feel.
Shape the owl’s body as a soft triangle with a round head on top, then dot soft grey markings lightly over the white feathers rather than outlining each one. Color the sky in deep sky blue fading toward navy near the top, and leave the crescent moon as untouched white paper with a thin grey shadow curve.
Owls often end up flat because the feather dots get drawn in a stiff grid. Scatter them more densely on the wings and sparse on the chest instead, following the curve of the body.
No deep blue pencil to hand, layering sky blue and a little grey over it darkens the sky just as well. Tip for today: keep the pine bough dark and simple so the pale owl stands out clearly against it.
Palette: White,Soft Grey,Sky Blue,Pine Green
Add a second character with two robins sharing a bird feeder hung with berries, a nice chance to practice a hands-on texture trick on the feeder itself. Sketch the feeder as a simple wooden box shape hanging from a branch, then draw the two robins at slightly different heights so they do not mirror each other exactly.
Color both breasts in cherry red first, varying the pressure slightly between the two birds so one reads a touch brighter and closer. For the feeder’s wood grain, try dry brushing with the side of a brown pencil almost out of lead, dragging it lightly across the surface so the grain looks worn rather than drawn.
Berries clustered too evenly in a row look like beads on a string. Group them in uneven little clumps of two or three instead, which reads far more like real holly or rowan berries.
If you want the feeder to look older and more weathered, a grey pencil over the brown dry brushing softens the wood tone nicely. Tip for today: turn one robin’s head toward the other to make the pair feel like a moment, not two separate sketches.
Palette: Cherry Red,Burnt Umber,Soft Grey,Pine Green
Switch to something shaggier with a highland cow with snow on her fringe in a frosty field, where the fun is entirely in the texture of that long fur. Block the body as a wide, rounded rectangle first, then build the fringe over her eyes with long, loose zigzag strokes rather than a single smooth curve.
Layer burnt sienna and a little cherry red underneath for warmth, then add soft grey on top only where the frost sits, right along the fringe and the tips of the horns. The frosty field behind her stays mostly bare white paper with a faint blue grey shadow line to ground her feet.
New shaggy coats often end up looking combed and neat, which loses the charm. Let some strokes cross each other at different angles, especially around the fringe, for a proper tousled look.
Without burnt sienna, a mix of orange and brown pencils layered together gets close to the same warm coat color. Tip for today: draw the horns curving slightly forward and down, which reads unmistakably as highland cattle.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Cherry Red,Soft Grey,White
Try a little story with a reindeer peeking through a round window into a cozy kitchen, which asks you to think about light source before anything else. Decide the kitchen glow comes from inside, then let that warm yellow light spill slightly onto the reindeer’s face and the window frame, while the outside night stays in cooler blues and greys.
Draw the round window first as a simple circle with a thin wooden frame, then place the reindeer’s head and antlers filling most of the glass from outside. Inside, keep the kitchen details small and soft, a hint of a candle or a mug, so the reindeer stays the clear focus.
If the glow looks flat, it is usually because the warm color stops sharply at the window edge. Let a touch of yellow bleed softly onto the reindeer’s nose and the snow just outside the frame.
No yellow pencil for the glow, a pale orange laid lightly does the same warm job. Tip for today: keep the reindeer’s expression curious rather than alarmed, a slightly tilted head says it best.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Pale Yellow,Sky Blue,Soft Grey
Keep things simple again with a robin hopping along a snowy picket fence, a good subject for a quick card when time is short. Draw three or four fence pickets first in a gentle perspective, slightly smaller toward one side of the page, then perch the robin mid hop on top of one picket with one foot lifted.
In ten minutes you can block the red breast, the grey back and the white fence caps and call it finished. Given forty minutes, add individual feather hatching on the wings, a soft cast shadow on the snow below the fence, and tiny icicles hanging from the picket tops.
The fence often ends up looking too even and ruler straight. Let the picket tops vary slightly in height and tilt, which makes the whole scene feel more hand drawn and less like a diagram.
If you do not have a ruler for the fence lines, use the edge of an index card instead. Tip for today: tilt the robin’s head slightly and lift one foot clear off the picket to catch it mid motion.
Palette: Cherry Red,Soft Grey,White,Slate Grey
Scale up slightly with a flock of sheep in striped scarves huddled by a red barn, a good next step once the single sheep shape feels comfortable. Measure the barn first against the sheep: the barn door should sit about three sheep bodies tall, which keeps the whole scene in proportion before you draw a single stripe.
Build the barn in strong cherry red with soft grey shadow along its base, then cluster four or five sheep tightly together in front of it, overlapping their woolly bodies slightly so the flock reads as one huddled group. Give each scarf a different stripe pattern in pine green, cherry red or soft grey so the sheep stay easy to tell apart.
Drawing every sheep the same size in a neat row flattens the whole scene. Vary their sizes a little and turn a couple of heads in different directions for a more natural huddle.
If red feels too strong for the whole barn, deepen it with a little burnt umber in the shaded side instead of adding more red. For more snowy farm moments like this, the Christmas drawing ideas pencil collection has several gentle barnyard scenes worth trying next.
Palette: Cherry Red,Pine Green,Soft Grey,Burnt Umber
Soften the mood with a deer fawn nibbling holly berries at the edge of a wood, a smaller and more delicate subject than the adult stag earlier in this list. Sketch the fawn with a rounder body and bigger head relative to its legs than you would give a grown deer, since that proportion is what makes a fawn read as young rather than simply small.
Build the coat in pale burnt sienna with soft white spots left as untouched paper dots, then add the holly leaves in pine green with sharp pointed edges and the berries in bright cherry red, clustered in small groups near the fawn’s mouth. Keep the woodland edge behind simple, just a few dark trunk shapes fading into white.
Spots scattered too evenly across the back look painted on rather than natural. Group them more densely along the spine and thin them out toward the belly.
Without a fine white gel pen for crisp spot edges, simply leave the paper bare and outline each spot lightly in grey instead. Tip for today: angle the fawn’s head down toward the berries so the whole pose feels like one small, believable action.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,White,Pine Green,Cherry Red
Bring back a splash of bold color with a pair of cardinals sitting on a snow-covered mailbox, a strong choice if you want a card that reads clearly from across a room. Draw the mailbox first as a simple curved cylinder shape on a post, capped with a thick rounded mound of snow, then perch the two cardinals close together on top.
Color the male a full, saturated cherry red all over except his black face mask, and keep the female in warmer soft brown with only a hint of red on her wings and crest, which is the real difference between the two birds. The mailbox itself stays mostly soft grey with white snow catching the light along its curved top.
Painting both birds the same bright red loses that pairing detail entirely. Keep one bold and one muted and the two read instantly as a mated pair rather than two copies.
If you do not have a dedicated brown pencil for the female, layering orange under grey gets a close warm tone. Tip for today: give each bird a small crest point on the head, it is the single shape that makes a cardinal unmistakable.
Palette: Cherry Red,Soft Grey,Black,Burnt Sienna
Add a gentle character moment with a donkey in a knitted hat standing by a snowy stable door, which leans on getting the ears right more than anything else. Draw the head first, keeping it slightly long and narrow, then place two tall oval ears angled outward, one of them poking through a hole in the knitted hat.
Color the coat in soft grey with a slightly darker grey muzzle, then make the hat the bright accent in cherry red or pine green with simple horizontal rib lines to suggest the knit. The stable door behind goes in as plain dark wood planks with a dusting of white snow along the top edge.
Ears drawn too short and rounded turn a donkey into a pony by accident. Lengthen them more than feels right at first and the whole animal clicks into place.
No soft grey pencil on hand, layering a light blue grey and a touch of brown together gets a similar donkey coat tone. Tip for today: tilt one ear forward and one back, it gives even a standing, still donkey a sense of alertness.
Palette: Soft Grey,Slate Grey,Cherry Red,Burnt Umber
Move to a smaller woodland moment with a squirrel tucking a pine cone into a hollow of a snowy oak, a nice subject for practicing texture on tree bark. Sketch the oak trunk wide and slightly leaning, with an uneven oval hollow partway up, then place the squirrel reaching toward it with the pine cone held in both front paws.
Build the trunk texture with short vertical hatching in burnt umber and soft grey, pressing harder in the grooves and lighter on the raised ridges, which gives the bark real dimension without much extra work. Color the squirrel’s tail big and full with long flicking strokes in a warm reddish brown, since the tail is what makes this read as a squirrel rather than a mouse.
A tail drawn too thin and smooth is the main thing that flattens this scene. Let the outline of the tail stay slightly ragged and uneven, almost like a flame shape, for a much more convincing fluff.
If burnt umber is not in your set, mixing brown and a little orange underneath grey gets a close bark tone. Tip for today: angle the squirrel’s body in a slight crouch, it reads as mid-motion rather than posed.
Palette: Burnt Umber,Soft Grey,Burnt Sienna,White
Bring some motion into the page with a polar bear cub sliding down an icy hill on its belly, a fun one to loosen your hand up for. Sketch the cub stretched long and low, front paws reaching forward and back legs trailing behind, which is the pose that sells the sliding motion far more than any speed lines would.
Leave almost the whole body as bare white paper, adding only the faintest soft grey shading along the belly and the underside of the legs where the body curves away from the light. The icy hill beneath gets a pale sky blue wash with a few sharp white highlight streaks left completely untouched to suggest the slick, shiny surface.
The cub often ends up looking stiff if the legs are drawn too evenly spaced and straight. Bend the back legs at slightly different angles and let one front paw lift a touch higher than the other.
Without a blue pencil for the ice, a very light grey wash under a few white gel pen streaks reads just as icy. Tip for today: keep the cub’s outline loose and slightly wavy rather than a crisp hard line, it reads as movement.
You Will Need
- white gel pen
Palette: White,Soft Grey,Sky Blue,Slate Grey
Return to a quieter moment with a robin bathing in a frozen birdbath that has just cracked, a scene that works nicely with a dry brush edge trick on the ice itself. Draw the birdbath as a simple pedestal and shallow bowl shape, then add a jagged crack line across the frozen surface running from one edge toward the center.
Color the robin perched on the rim first in cherry red and soft brown, then turn to the ice: lightly drag the side of a worn grey pencil along the crack lines so the edges look chipped and uneven rather than drawn with a single sharp stroke. A touch of sky blue in the deepest part of the crack suggests the thickness of the ice beneath.
A crack drawn as one clean straight line looks more like a scratch than broken ice. Branch it into two or three thinner lines forking off the main one for a far more convincing break.
If a worn down grey pencil is not available, smudging a soft pencil line gently with a finger gives a similar rough edge. Tip for today: keep the water in the bowl mostly untouched white, with just a thin grey rim shadow to show its depth.
Palette: Cherry Red,Soft Grey,Sky Blue,White
Take on a bigger animal with a moose wading through deep snow in a quiet pine forest, a good chance to think carefully about scale before you draw a single pine tree. Place the moose first, draw it large and close in the frame, then size the pine trees behind it noticeably smaller so the forest reads as distant rather than crowding the animal.
Build the moose’s body in deep burnt umber with soft grey shading under the belly, then give real attention to the broad, flat antlers, sketching them as wide paddles rather than the branching points a deer would have. The deep snow around the legs goes in last, a thick white mound with soft grey shadow lines curving around each leg to show how deeply it sits.
Antlers drawn too pointed turn a moose straight back into a stag by mistake. Keep the edges broad and slightly scalloped, which is the one shape detail that tells the two apart.
Without burnt umber for the dark coat, layering brown and a little black pencil together gets close to the same deep tone. Tip for today: hunch the moose’s shoulders slightly forward, it conveys the effort of wading through deep snow.
Palette: Burnt Umber,Soft Grey,Pine Green,White
Settle into something cozy with a wren sitting inside an evergreen wreath on a front door, a subject that works whether you have ten minutes or forty to spare. For the quick version, draw a simple circular wreath of overlapping pine green leaf shapes with a small round wren tucked into one side, and leave it at that.
Given more time, add a scattering of tiny pine cones and a few cherry red berries around the wreath, build individual needle clusters instead of plain leaf shapes, and shade the door behind in deep soft grey or navy so the wreath pops forward. The wren itself stays small and round, with its tail cocked up at a jaunty angle, which is the one shape detail that reads clearly as a wren rather than a sparrow.
Packing the wreath too evenly all the way around makes it look stiff and artificial. Leave gaps of varying size between the leaf clusters so it reads as handmade and loosely tied.
No deep door color to hand, a plain soft grey rectangle behind the wreath still makes it stand out well enough. Tip for today: draw the wreath slightly oval rather than a perfect circle, real wreaths are rarely symmetrical.
Palette: Pine Green,Cherry Red,Burnt Umber,Soft Grey
Carry the quiet mood further with a lamb asleep in the straw beside a lantern in a snowy barn, a scene where the light source changes almost every choice you make. Decide the lantern sits low and close to the lamb, then let its warm glow fall strongest on the straw and the lamb’s curled back, fading into cooler shadow toward the edges of the barn.
Draw the lamb curled into a tight round shape with its legs tucked completely underneath, and keep the wool texture soft and loose with small looping strokes in warm white and pale grey. Color the lantern glow in pale yellow bleeding gently into the straw around it, which should be laid in loose golden brown strokes rather than neat parallel lines.
If the glow looks pasted on rather than lighting the scene, the usual cause is a hard edge where the yellow stops. Blend it gradually into the surrounding grey and brown instead of leaving a visible ring.
Without a pale yellow pencil for the glow, a light orange laid very softly gives much the same lantern light. Tip for today: keep the lamb’s face hidden, tucked against its own body, which makes the whole pose read as deeply, peacefully asleep.
Palette: Pale Yellow,White,Soft Grey,Burnt Umber
Return to the stag with a different mood: a stag drinking from a misty lake at sunrise in winter, where everything depends on where you place the horizon and the light. Set the horizon low, about a third of the way up the page, so a wide band of pale sunrise sky and mist can stretch above the water and really set the scene.
Draw the stag bending its head down to the water’s edge, then build the lake surface with short horizontal strokes in pale pink and sky blue to catch the reflected dawn light, leaving a thin bright strip of white paper right where the stag’s reflection would break the surface. Keep the far shore soft and hazy with loose, barely-there grey shapes rather than any crisp detail.
A sharp, fully detailed reflection usually looks more awkward than beautiful here. Let it stay loose and slightly broken, closer to a smudge than a mirror image, which reads as much more convincing mist and water.
If pale pink is not in your set, a very light layer of cherry red under sky blue creates a similar sunrise tone. Tip for today: angle the antlers down and forward with the drinking pose, it keeps the whole shape believable rather than stiff.
Palette: Pale Pink,Sky Blue,Soft Grey,White
Bring in a smaller, brighter pair with blue tits on a frosted rose hip branch, a good subject for varying this list’s earlier bird ideas once the basic shapes feel easy. Draw the branch first as a thin curving line, then add two or three rose hips as small rounded ovals in cherry red along its length, before placing the two blue tits perched close together.
Color each bird with a soft sky blue cap and wings, a pale yellow belly, and a small black line through the eye, keeping the shapes rounder and plumper than a robin’s for that classic blue tit look. Dust the branch and the rose hips lightly with soft grey frost, leaving small white highlight flecks completely untouched.
Once this pair feels comfortable, try varying it next time with different perch plants: a sprig of frosted ivy, a bare rowan branch, or a single snow laden fir twig all suit the same two little birds. Changing just the perch keeps the idea fresh across several cards.
If pale yellow is not in your set, a light cream or ivory pencil gives a close belly tone. Tip for today: keep the two birds facing slightly different directions so the pair feels candid rather than posed.
Palette: Sky Blue,Pale Yellow,Cherry Red,Soft Grey
Shift to a calmer coastal mood with a seal resting on an ice floe as snowflakes fall, a subject built around one gentle curved shape. Draw the seal as a single long teardrop, tapering from a rounded head to a narrower tail, resting flat on an irregular white ice floe that floats on a strip of sky blue water.
Shade the seal’s body in soft grey with slightly darker patches scattered unevenly across the back, keeping the belly paler and almost untouched paper. For the snowflakes, dot a scattering of small white gel pen marks across the sky and water, varying their size so some sit close and large while others fade small into the distance.
Shading the seal in one flat even grey tone loses all the softness of its coat. Vary the pressure as you go, pressing a touch harder near the spine and lighter toward the edges, so the body feels rounded rather than flat.
No white gel pen for the snowflakes, tiny untouched white circles left bare within the sky blue wash read just as well. Tip for today: keep the ice floe’s edge jagged and uneven, a perfectly round floe looks far less convincing.
You Will Need
- white gel pen
Palette: Soft Grey,White,Sky Blue,Slate Grey
Pick up the energy again with a sheepdog bounding through deep snow toward a farmhouse, a great subject for practicing motion with your pencil line itself. Sketch the dog mid stride, front legs stretched forward and back legs pushing off behind, with the body slightly lower at the front to suggest real forward momentum.
Color the coat in strong black and white patches, following the direction each patch naturally curves around the body rather than coloring in flat blocks, and kick up a few loose white scribble marks around the paws where snow would spray from each bound. The farmhouse in the distance stays small and simple, a warm glow in one window the only real color against the snow.
A dog drawn with all four legs touching the ground at once kills the sense of bounding entirely. Lift at least one paw clearly off the snow and the motion reads instantly.
If black feels too harsh straight from the pencil, layering a dark soft grey first and black only in the deepest patches softens the coat nicely. Tip for today: tilt the ears back slightly, it is a small detail that reads as speed.
Palette: Black,White,Soft Grey,Pale Yellow
Add a strong splash of color with a pheasant strutting across a frosty ploughed field, a subject that leans heavily on getting the proportion of that long tail right. Measure the tail against the body before coloring anything: a cock pheasant’s tail usually runs as long as the rest of the bird put together, so sketch it trailing well behind rather than tucked in short.
Build the head in deep pine green with a small cherry red patch near the eye, then move down into the body feathers using warm burnt sienna and soft grey mottling, and finish the tail in long, barred strokes that taper gradually toward the tip. The ploughed field beneath gets simple ridged furrow lines in soft grey with a light dusting of frost left as bare white paper on each ridge top.
A tail that stays the same width all the way along looks stiff and feather-like rather than real. Taper it gradually and let the very tip thin almost to a point.
Without pine green for the head, a deep teal or dark green marker layered under pencil gets a close iridescent look. Tip for today: angle the whole bird walking slightly across the page rather than straight on, it suits the strutting pose far better.
Palette: Pine Green,Cherry Red,Burnt Sienna,Soft Grey
Return to the snowman family with a snowman holding out his twig arms full of chickadees, a cheerful variation on the earlier waving snowman that adds several small characters at once. Draw the snowman’s basic stacked circles first, then extend both twig arms outward and upward slightly, like small branches, ready to hold the birds.
Perch three or four chickadees along each twig arm, keeping them small and rounded with simple black caps, white cheeks and soft grey backs, and vary their poses slightly so some face forward and others sideways. Leave the snowman’s body completely bare white paper as before, adding only his coal eyes, carrot nose and a bright cherry red scarf for contrast against all those small birds.
Lining every chickadee up in one neat row along the arm looks stiff and unnatural. Stagger their heights and spacing instead, exactly how real birds would settle on an uneven branch.
If black feels too stark for the little caps, a very dark soft grey reads almost the same at this small scale. Tip for today: give one chickadee a slightly open beak, as if mid chirp, it brings a nice bit of life to the whole group.
Palette: White,Black,Soft Grey,Cherry Red
Go small and playful again with a robin peeking out of a woolly hat left on a gatepost, a nice quick subject that pairs well with the picket fence idea earlier in this list. Draw the gatepost first as a simple rounded wooden column, then place the knitted hat sitting loosely over the top, with its pompom flopping slightly to one side.
Tuck the robin’s head and shoulders peeking out from the folded brim of the hat, just the cherry red breast and a bit of the face showing, as if it has climbed in for warmth. Color the hat in pine green or soft grey with simple rib lines, and leave the gatepost itself mostly in warm grey wood tones with a cap of snow along its top edge.
If the robin looks like it is simply sitting beside the hat rather than inside it, check that the hat’s brim overlaps the bottom of the bird’s body. That overlap is what sells the whole idea.
Without a pine green pencil for the hat, a deep soft grey knit reads just as cozy. Tip for today: keep the pompom a little lopsided, a perfectly round one looks too stiff for a worn, left-behind hat.
Palette: Cherry Red,Pine Green,Burnt Umber,Soft Grey
Build toward a fuller scene with a stag and doe walking side by side through a snowy clearing, a pairing that tests whether your earlier single stag drawings hold up next to a second animal. Draw the stag slightly taller and heavier through the shoulders, and keep the doe’s head without antlers, a touch smaller and more slender through the neck, so the two read clearly as different animals rather than two copies.
Walk them both in the same direction with legs mid stride, placing the doe a half step behind and slightly to one side rather than perfectly level, which reads far more naturally than two animals marching in a straight line. Build both coats in warm burnt sienna and soft grey, saving the antlers and any snow detailing on them for the stag alone.
Giving both animals identical leg positions is the detail that usually gives away a traced or copied pose. Offset their stride slightly, one a touch further forward than the other, and the whole scene relaxes.
If burnt sienna runs out, orange under a light brown wash blends close enough for the second coat. For more paired animal scenes to try after this one, the Christmas bunny drawing ideas offer a softer, smaller pairing to practice next.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Soft Grey,White,Pine Green
Soften the owl theme with a little brown owl tucked into a knitted scarf on a fence post, a smaller and rounder cousin to the snowy owl from earlier in this list. Draw the body as one simple rounded shape with a flattened base sitting on the fence post, then wrap a knitted scarf in cherry red or pine green around the neck, letting the ends trail down over the post.
Color the feathers in warm burnt umber with soft streaky markings rather than a flat wash, keeping the chest a touch paler than the back for natural contrast. The eyes should sit large and round, closer together than a snowy owl’s, which is the detail that keeps a little brown owl from reading as any other species.
Overworking the feather streaks into a tight, busy pattern makes the owl look fussy rather than fluffy. Keep the streaks loose, irregular and a little sparse, especially around the face.
Without burnt umber, layering brown and a touch of grey together gets a close match. Tip for today: let the scarf fold naturally around the rounded body rather than hanging flat, it makes the whole wrap feel properly knitted.
Palette: Burnt Umber,Cherry Red,Soft Grey,White
Close the list with a bit of whimsy: a reindeer pulling a tiny sled of pine trees across a frozen lake, which asks for a light touch with the sled and harness details. Draw the reindeer mid stride first, then attach a simple rope line back to a small flat sled carrying two or three miniature pine trees, each one just a quick triangle shape in pine green.
Color the reindeer in warm burnt sienna with soft grey shading along the belly and legs, then keep the sled itself plain brown wood with the rope drawn as a single thin, slightly curved line rather than anything stiff or ruler straight. The frozen lake beneath stretches out in pale sky blue with a few thin white cracks left as bare paper running across the surface.
A perfectly straight, taut rope line looks stiff and mechanical next to all these rounded, organic shapes. Let it sag very slightly between the harness and the sled for a far more believable pull.
Without sky blue for the lake, a very pale grey wash reads just as icy and cold. Tip for today: keep the pine trees on the sled small, no taller than the reindeer’s legs, so the scale of the whole scene stays believable.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Pine Green,Sky Blue,Soft Grey
What to Do Next
Pick whichever animal matches the card you need most today, sketch it loosely first in pencil, then bring in your colored pencils once the proportions feel right. Keep a kneaded eraser nearby for any lifted highlights, and let the white paper do more of the snow than you think it should.
Frequently Asked Questions
What colored pencils work best for christmas card drawing?
Artist grade wax or oil based colored pencils in a 24 to 48 color set work best, since they layer and blend more smoothly than student grade sets. A few reds, greens, greys and browns cover almost every idea in this list.
What paper should I use for a colored pencil Christmas card?
Smooth bristol or marker paper works best because it lets pencil strokes glide and layer cleanly without the texture of rough watercolor paper fighting the point. Heavier card stock also folds neatly into a finished card.
How do I stop colored pencil snow scenes from looking flat?
Leave more paper bare than feels natural, since untouched white paper reads as bright snow far better than any white pencil layered on top. Add shadow only where the snow curves away from the light.
Can I turn these drawings into printed cards instead of originals?
Yes, scan or photograph the finished drawing and have it printed onto blank card stock at a print shop or home printer. This also lets you send the same drawing to several people at once.
How do I make the animal look less stiff in a small card drawing?
Vary the leg positions, tilt the head slightly off center, and avoid drawing every line perfectly straight or symmetrical. Small, deliberate asymmetry is what makes a simple animal shape feel alive rather than posed.