Hat drawing is the fastest way to turn a plain figure into a little character with a personality, and winter gives you every excuse to pile on pom-poms, ear flaps and berets. A hat sits close to the face, so it reads instantly, which makes it a satisfying subject for marker work: a few confident shapes, a tidy fineliner line, and the whole picture feels finished in no time.
Below are 37 small scenes, each one a hat on someone doing something, from a dog in a knit beanie to a woman in a cloche hat at a vintage tea room. Work through them in order if you like, from the simplest single figure to the busier little scenes, or just pick whichever one makes you want to grab a marker right now.
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Start the whole list with a girl in a cherry red pom-pom hat, head tipped back, tongue out to catch snowflakes. Block in the head and shoulders with light fineliner first, keep the chin lifted and the neck short, then draw the hat as a soft dome with a ribbed band and one round pom-pom balanced on top.
Lay flat cherry red marker over the hat first, before any skin tone, so you are not fighting wet color next to wet color. Block the coat in a second flat color, then come back with a slightly darker red along the hat’s ribbed band to suggest the knit texture.
This pose goes wrong when the tipped-back head looks stiff: check that the chin, nose tip and hat brim all point the same direction along one tilted line before you ink it. If markers feel unpredictable for skin tone, swap in colored pencil just for the face and keep the hat and coat in marker.
Measure the hat against the head before you commit to ink: a pom-pom hat usually sits about a third taller than the head itself once you include the pom-pom, which keeps it from looking flat.
Palette: Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Baby Blue,Blush Pink
Follow the girl with a dog wearing a knit beanie that has two holes for its ears to poke through, sitting in the snow. Sketch the head as a rounded wedge, place the ear holes first so the hat design makes sense, then let the ears pop through before you draw the rest of the beanie’s ribbing.
Fineliner the outline loosely, then lay the beanie in oatmeal or moss green marker, leaving the ears uncolored until the hat is dry so the ink doesn’t bleed across the hole edges. Add the snow ground last with a cool baby blue shadow under the paws.
Floppy ears through tight holes can look pasted on if the hole shape doesn’t match the ear’s actual width at that point: measure the ear’s thickness where it exits the hat and make the hole exactly that wide, no wider.
If you only have fineliner and one marker on hand, keep the whole dog in that one color and let the white paper stand in for the snow.
Palette: Moss Green,Oatmeal,Baby Blue,Charcoal Grey
Move from animals to a quiet street scene: a woman in a black beret walking past a snowy Paris cafe. Place her figure first, slightly off-center, walking toward one edge of the page, then sketch the cafe facade behind her with a simple awning and a few round cafe tables outside.
Draw the beret as a soft flattened circle tilted to one side of the head, never perfectly centered, which is what makes a beret read as a beret rather than a shower cap. Ink the figure and cafe line work before adding color, then lay flat black on the beret and let the cafe front stay in oatmeal or moss green.
Eye level matters here: keep the cafe windows and awning line at the same horizontal height as her shoulders so the perspective feels like you are standing on the same street, not looking down from above.
If the architecture feels like too much, simplify the cafe to one window, one awning edge and a hanging sign, and let the snow and her figure carry the scene.
Palette: Black,Oatmeal,Moss Green,Baby Blue
Look at a few reference photos of Parisian cafe awnings before you draw: the scalloped edge and the simple lettering-free stripe pattern read instantly without needing any actual signage.
Keep the mood playful with a baby in a bear ear hat, bundled into a sled. Draw the sled first as a simple curved runner shape, then build the baby’s bundled body as one soft rounded mass with just a face and mittened hands peeking out.
The bear ears sit higher and wider apart than real ears would, which is what reads as cute rather than realistic: place them near the top outer edges of the head shape before you ink anything else. Color the hat in oatmeal or moss green, keep the sled in a plain wood brown, and leave plenty of white paper for the snow.
Round faces lose their charm fast if the features drift off center: lightly mark a vertical centerline down the face first so the eyes, nose and mouth stay balanced even inside a thick bundled hood.
For a quicker version, skip the sled entirely and just draw the bundled baby’s face and hat large, filling most of the page.
Palette: Oatmeal,Moss Green,Blush Pink,Baby Blue
Bring in some motion with a skier wearing a retro striped bobble hat at the top of a slope. Block the figure in a wide stable stance first, skis pointing downhill, poles planted, then add the hat last so its pom-pom has somewhere specific to bounce from.
Draw the stripes around the hat following its curve rather than straight across, which keeps the knit looking like it wraps a round head instead of a flat sticker. Alternate cherry red and oatmeal stripes, ink the pom-pom as one loose circle, then color the ski jacket in a contrasting moss green or baby blue.
Light comes from one side up here on an open slope, usually the upper corner of the page: shade the downhill side of the figure and the hat a touch darker so the whole scene feels lit rather than flat.
If stripes feel fiddly, a solid color hat with one contrast band at the fold still reads as a bobble hat and finishes faster.
Palette: Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Moss Green,Baby Blue
Slow the pace down with a cat curled on a radiator, wearing a tiny knitted hat between its ears. Draw the radiator first as a simple ribbed rectangle against a wall, then nestle the cat’s curled body on top before adding the small hat perched at a jaunty angle.
Keep the hat genuinely tiny compared to the cat’s head, just a small knit dome with maybe one little pom-pom, since an oversized hat on a cat tips the drawing into costume territory rather than a cozy moment. Color the cat in its own coat pattern first, then add the hat in a single contrasting moss green or cherry red.
One hands-on trick here: use a kneaded eraser to lift a few soft highlight streaks through the fur after you ink it but before marker, so the pencil guide underneath leaves faint texture marks the marker then glides over.
Swap the radiator for a plain windowsill if ribbed lines feel tricky to keep straight.
Palette: Oatmeal,Moss Green,Cherry Red,Charcoal Grey
Shift to a gentler scene: a grandfather in a tweed flat cap, scattering seed for birds in the snow. Draw the flat cap first since its shape sets the whole head angle, a low rounded dome with a small stiff brim pulled slightly forward, then build the stooped shoulders and the hand scattering seed below it.
Give the cap a herringbone pattern with short diagonal fineliner marks before color rather than after, since marker over tiny pattern lines tends to swallow them. Lay a muted oatmeal or moss green over the coat, keep the cap in a warmer brown-grey, and scatter two or three small birds at his feet.
If this is your first time drawing an older figure, round the shoulders forward slightly and shorten the stride, which reads as age far more clearly than any wrinkle lines would.
For a ten-minute version, draw just the cap and the scattering hand close up; the forty-minute version adds the full figure, the birds and the snowy path.
Palette: Oatmeal,Moss Green,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue
Settle into a quieter moment with a girl knitting a beanie on a long train ride, the window beside her streaked with frost. Draw the train window frame first as a simple rounded rectangle, then place her seated figure leaning slightly toward it, knitting needles crossed in her lap.
The half-finished beanie on the needles should look like loose loops rather than a solid shape: draw a cluster of small connected ovals in moss green or cherry red yarn rather than one filled blob, which reads far more convincingly as knitting in progress.
Getting the needles to look parallel and the right length apart is the easy place to go wrong: lightly draw one needle, then trace a copy at a slight angle for the second rather than drawing it freehand from scratch.
If you want to vary this one next time, swap the train window for a bus seat or a park bench and keep the same knitting pose.
Palette: Moss Green,Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Baby Blue
Add some energy with a pom-pom hat caught by the wind, tumbling away while its owner chases after it. Draw the hat mid-air first, tilted and slightly stretched along the direction it is flying, with a loose trailing pom-pom to suggest motion, then place the running figure reaching after it a few steps behind.
Give the figure’s coat and scarf a few flung-back lines following the same wind direction as the hat, which ties the whole page together as one gust rather than two separate drawings. Color the hat in cherry red so it pops against a cooler oatmeal or baby blue background.
Motion reads better with a slight blur at the hat’s edges: try a dry brush pass with a nearly empty marker along the hat’s trailing edge to soften it, rather than a hard fineliner outline all the way round.
No extra marker for blur effects? A few short speed lines behind the hat do the same job with just your fineliner.
Palette: Cherry Red,Baby Blue,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey
Give the page a sense of place with a woman in a trapper hat walking a husky through deep snow. Draw the husky first since its stance sets the pace of the whole scene, legs mid-stride, tail curled, then place the woman a half step behind on the leash.
The trapper hat’s ear flaps should hang unevenly, one slightly forward from the motion, rather than perfectly symmetrical, which keeps the whole figure feeling like it is actually walking rather than posing. Color the hat in oatmeal with a moss green flap lining, and keep the husky’s coat in a simple grey and white pattern.
Eye level sits low here, close to the snow, which makes both figures feel grounded: keep the horizon line roughly at the woman’s waist height rather than near the top of the page.
If husky markings feel complex, a plain grey dog with dark ear tips still reads clearly at this distance.
Palette: Oatmeal,Moss Green,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue
Bring in two figures at once with twin sisters in matching hats, stacking snow blocks into a small fort. Draw the fort first as a simple low wall of stacked rounded rectangles, then place the two girls on either side, one lifting a block, one patting one into place.
Keep their hats, coats and mittens genuinely identical in color and shape since that twin detail is the whole joke of the scene; draw one girl fully first, then trace her hat and coat shapes for the second rather than redrawing from scratch, adjusting only the pose.
Matching figures can look stiff if both stand the same way: give one girl a bent knee and a reaching arm, and keep the other more upright, so the pair reads as two different actions rather than a mirrored copy.
If two full figures feels like a lot for one sitting, crop the scene to just their hatted heads and shoulders peeking over the fort wall.
Palette: Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Baby Blue,Moss Green
Switch to something unexpected: a lamb wearing a tiny bobble hat, standing in a snowy field. Draw the lamb’s rounded woolly body first using small overlapping scallop lines rather than a smooth outline, which gives the fleece its texture before you even reach for a marker.
Place the tiny hat between the lamb’s ears, scaled down even smaller than you think it should be, since an oversized hat here reads as a costume rather than a charming detail. Color the fleece in oatmeal with soft grey shadow underneath, and let the hat stand out in moss green or cherry red.
The scalloped wool texture is the one hands-on trick worth practicing separately first: a few loose test scallops on scrap paper will save the final drawing if your hand feels unsure of the rhythm.
Swap the snowy field for a simple fence line background if a full landscape feels like too much today.
Palette: Oatmeal,Moss Green,Cherry Red,Charcoal Grey
Take a break from figures with a hat shop window, felt hats lined up on stands with snow falling outside. Draw the window frame first as a large rectangle dividing the page, then fill the inside with three or four hat stands at slightly different heights so the display doesn’t look like a flat row.
Vary the hats themselves, a cloche, a fedora, a beret, each in a different solid color, which gives you practice drawing several hat shapes in one sitting without needing a figure to wear any of them. Add a soft reflection line across the glass in a pale baby blue to suggest the window pane.
If you enjoy this kind of composition, the same approach to drawing boots drawing works nicely for a companion piece, a shop window full of winter boots instead of hats.
Keep the outside snow simple, a few falling dots and a dusted sill, so the hats stay the clear focus of the page.
Palette: Moss Green,Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Baby Blue
Return to a single calm figure: a girl in a chunky cable knit beanie, reading on a park bench. Draw the bench first as two simple horizontal planks on short legs, then seat the figure with knees drawn up slightly, book held close, hat pulled down over her ears.
The cable pattern on the beanie is the detail worth taking slowly: draw a few vertical twisted rope shapes rather than a busy all-over texture, two or three cables evenly spaced is plenty. Color the hat in oatmeal with slightly darker oatmeal shading in the grooves of each cable to let them read clearly.
If this is your first time drawing cable knit, practice the twisted rope shape alone a few times on scrap paper before placing it on the hat, since the crossing lines take a moment to feel natural.
For a simpler version, a plain ribbed beanie without any cable pattern still finishes the whole scene nicely.
Palette: Oatmeal,Moss Green,Baby Blue,Blush Pink
Bring in a busier backdrop with a girl in a fleece bucket hat, browsing stalls at a winter market. Draw her figure first, leaning slightly toward a stall table, then add just enough of the market behind her, a striped awning corner and a few hanging string lights, to suggest the setting without drawing every stall in full.
The bucket hat’s soft floppy brim is the detail to get right: let it dip gently at the front and sides rather than standing stiff, which is what separates a fleece bucket hat from a structured cap. Color the hat in moss green, the awning in cherry red and oatmeal stripes, and keep the rest of the market loose and suggested.
If you enjoy drawing market scenes like this, the stalls and lights here would sit happily alongside the small winter scenes in winter morning drawing ideas.
Keep the background values lighter than the figure so her hat and face stay the clear focal point.
Palette: Moss Green,Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Baby Blue
Keep things lighthearted with a pug in a pom-pom hat, sitting patiently on a snowy doorstep. Draw the pug’s compact body first, round head, short snout, then fit the hat snugly over the head with the ears left free, since pug ears sit lower and more forward than most dogs.
Wrinkles around the pug’s face are the detail that sells the breed: a few short curved lines above the nose and between the eyes, drawn after the main features are inked, keep the face looking properly pug-like without overworking it. Color the hat in cherry red against the pug’s warm oatmeal or fawn coat.
If wrinkle lines start to look messy or too dense, erase and simplify to three or four confident curves rather than many small scratchy ones, which almost always reads better from a short distance.
A plain beige background wall behind the doorstep keeps the whole page calm and lets the hat’s red stand out.
Palette: Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue
Add some motion again with a girl in a knit balaclava, skating across a frozen pond. Draw the pond surface first as a flat oval with a few thin curved lines for ice texture, then place the skating figure mid-glide, one leg extended back, arms out for balance.
The balaclava covers more of the face than a beanie, leaving just an oval opening for the eyes and nose: draw that opening first so the proportions of the face sit correctly inside it before adding the rest of the knit fabric around it. Color the balaclava in moss green and the pond ice in a very pale baby blue with white highlights left bare.
Quick version, ten minutes: just the skating figure and a hint of ice beneath the blades. The forty-minute version adds trees around the pond edge and a few other tiny skaters in the distance for scale.
Keep the extended back leg’s line long and confident in one stroke rather than built from several short ones, which keeps the glide looking smooth.
Palette: Moss Green,Baby Blue,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey
Slow down for a tender moment: a mother kneeling to tie a hat under a toddler’s chin by the front door. Draw the two figures close together first, the mother’s hands near the toddler’s chin, both faces angled toward each other rather than out at the viewer, which carries the warmth of the moment.
The hat ties themselves are a small but important detail: two simple curved ribbon shapes crossing under the chin, drawn after both figures are inked so you can judge exactly where they need to sit. Color the toddler’s hat in cherry red, the mother’s coat in a quieter oatmeal, keeping the palette calm rather than busy.
If close-up faces feel tricky, simplify both to simple features, dot eyes and a small curved mouth, since the pose and the gesture of tying the hat carry the story more than detailed faces do.
A plain doorway frame behind them, just two vertical lines and a lintel, is all the setting this scene needs.
Palette: Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Blush Pink,Charcoal Grey
Return to animals with a pony wearing a knitted hat with ear holes, standing in a snowy paddock. Draw the pony’s head and neck first at a slight downward tilt, as if grazing or sniffing the snow, then fit the hat over the head with both ears poked through before adding the mane.
The mane should overlap the hat’s edge slightly rather than tuck neatly under it, which keeps the pony looking like a real animal wearing something rather than a stiff illustration. Color the hat in moss green, the pony’s coat in a warm brown or oatmeal, and keep the paddock background to a simple fence line and open snow.
Getting the ear holes to actually fit the ears is the easy place to slip up: draw the ears first, then place the hat around them, rather than drawing the hat whole and trying to cut holes in afterward.
No moss green on hand? A plain cherry red hat against a brown pony reads just as warmly.
Palette: Moss Green,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue
Take a breather from figures with a hat rack by the door, hung with the whole family’s beanies and berets. Draw the rack itself first, a simple vertical post with three or four pegs at different heights, then hang a different hat from each peg, varying both shape and color so the rack reads as a family rather than a repeated pattern.
Overlap one or two of the hats slightly where they hang close together, which keeps the composition feeling natural rather than like a tidy catalog display. Color each hat differently, cherry red, moss green, oatmeal, baby blue, so the whole rack reads as a cheerful little still life.
If you enjoy still life groupings like this, the layered approach works nicely alongside ideas in things to draw in your sketchbook for a varied practice page.
Keep the wall behind plain so the hats and their colors stay the whole focus of the page.
Palette: Cherry Red,Moss Green,Oatmeal,Baby Blue
Bring the scene indoors with a girl in a lilac beret, painting at an easel beside a window. Draw the easel and canvas first as the anchor of the composition, then place her figure beside it, one hand holding a small palette, the other reaching toward the canvas with a brush.
The beret here can be a softer lilac or a muted plum rather than the classic black, which is a nice variation once you have drawn a beret once or twice already and want to try a new palette on the same shape. Keep the window behind her simple, a cool baby blue rectangle with a few snowflakes, so the warm interior colors stand out against it.
If you want to vary this one again later, swap the easel for a sketchbook on her lap and keep the same beret and window setup.
Close with one concrete choice: pick the beret’s angle before anything else, tilted toward one eyebrow, since that single decision sets the whole character of the pose.
Palette: Baby Blue,Oatmeal,Blush Pink,Moss Green
Shift the mood with a man in a wool fedora, carrying a newspaper through falling snow. Draw the fedora first since its brim angle sets the whole tilt of the head, pulled low at the front, then build the coat collar up around the jaw and the newspaper tucked under one arm.
The brim’s shadow across the upper face is worth adding deliberately rather than leaving the face fully lit: a soft charcoal grey band just under the brim gives the hat weight and suggests the light is coming from slightly above. Color the fedora in a muted oatmeal or charcoal grey, keep the coat darker, and let the newspaper stay a plain cream rectangle.
If shading under the brim feels tricky with marker alone, a light layer of colored pencil over the dry marker softens that transition nicely.
Keep the snow behind him sparse, a handful of falling dots, so the figure stays the clear subject of the page.
Palette: Charcoal Grey,Oatmeal,Baby Blue,Cherry Red
Zoom in close for a still life: a beanie with a giant pom-pom, still being knitted on circular needles. Draw the circular needles first as a looped cable shape, then build the half-finished hat hanging from them, stitches shown as a few rows of small connected loops rather than a smooth fabric surface.
The giant pom-pom itself is the fun part: draw it as a dense cluster of short overlapping curved strokes radiating outward from a center point, rather than one smooth circle, which is what gives it that fluffy oversized look. Color the yarn in cherry red and the pom-pom in a contrasting oatmeal.
If close-up stitch detail feels like too much today, simplify the knitted body to a few rows of loops near the brim and let the rest fade into flat color, keeping all the detail concentrated in that pom-pom.
No circular needles reference handy? A single straight needle with the hat draped over it tells the same story.
Palette: Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey,Moss Green
Capture a small funny moment: a child pulling her hat down over her eyes, giggling underneath it. Draw the hat first, stretched slightly downward and distorted by the pulling motion, covering the top half of the face, then add the giggling mouth and chin peeking out below it as the only visible feature.
A few short motion lines near the hands where she grips the hat brim help sell the pulling action, drawn lightly before ink so you can judge how many is enough without the page feeling busy. Color the hat in moss green, the visible lower face in a warm blush, and keep everything else simple.
Proportion check: even stretched down, the hat should still sit roughly where the head actually is, so measure the head’s width first and keep the stretched hat within that same width rather than letting it balloon sideways.
This one finishes fast since so little of the face needs drawing, a nice pick when you want a complete picture in a short sitting.
Palette: Moss Green,Blush Pink,Oatmeal,Cherry Red
Take a quiet pause with a teddy bear wearing a doll-sized knit hat, propped on a bed. Draw the bear’s rounded body and head first, simple stitched seam lines at the limbs and ears, then fit the tiny hat between the ears, scaled down to match a bear roughly the size of a real stuffed toy.
Keep the hat genuinely small, since the charm of this scene depends on the mismatch between a full-sized knit pattern and a tiny toy head: a single thin ribbed band and one small pom-pom is plenty of detail. Color the bear in warm oatmeal with darker brown stitched seams, and the hat in cherry red.
If you are short on markers, a plain bedspread in one flat moss green behind the bear is all the background this scene needs.
For a quick version, just the bear’s head and hat close up skips the bed entirely and still tells the whole story.
Palette: Oatmeal,Cherry Red,Charcoal Grey,Moss Green
Add warmth with a couple sharing one long scarf, each wearing a matching hat. Draw the two figures close together first, shoulders touching, then wind the single long scarf around both necks so it visibly connects them, overlapping in the middle rather than drawn as two separate scarves.
Matching hats on two different head shapes is the detail worth varying slightly: keep the color and pattern identical but let one hat sit a touch more forward and the other more back, which avoids the stiff mirrored look that can creep into paired figures. Color both hats in the same oatmeal or moss green, and let the scarf be the one shared cherry red element tying them together.
If drawing two full figures side by side feels like a lot, crop the scene to just their shoulders, heads and the shared scarf, which keeps the connection just as clear.
Keep the background to a plain cool wash so the warm scarf color stays the visual center of the page.
Palette: Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Moss Green,Baby Blue
Warm things up with a girl in a mint beanie, cupping a mug of cocoa at a ski lodge table. Draw the mug first with both hands wrapped around it, then build the figure outward from there, hat pulled snug, a slight steam curl rising from the drink.
The steam line is a small detail that adds a lot of cozy feeling: one or two soft wavy lines rising from the mug, drawn lightly in fineliner only, with no marker color at all so they stay delicate against the background. Color the mint beanie in a pale moss or baby blue tint, the mug in cherry red, and keep the lodge interior behind her in warm oatmeal tones.
If the steam lines end up too heavy or straight, erase and redraw them with a slightly shaky, broken line instead of one smooth curve, which reads as rising warmth far more convincingly.
A plain log cabin wall with one small window is all the backdrop this scene really needs.
Palette: Baby Blue,Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Moss Green
Return to the cat for a different pose: curled asleep inside an upturned knit hat on the floor. Draw the hat first, turned brim-up so its opening faces the viewer, then nestle the sleeping cat’s body inside it, limbs tucked and barely visible over the hat’s rim.
The hat’s rib pattern reads most clearly along the visible inner rim rather than across the whole surface, since most of the hat’s outer body is hidden by the cat curled inside it: a few short vertical lines along that rim is all the knit texture this pose needs. Color the hat in moss green and the cat in its own coat pattern, letting its fur spill slightly over the hat’s edge.
If the cat’s curled shape feels tricky, start from a simple oval and only add the head, tail tip and one paw poking out, which is often all a sleeping cat needs to read clearly.
Swap the floor for a sunny windowsill if you want a warmer light source behind the scene.
Palette: Moss Green,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue
Bring back a figure with a girl in a hat with knitted cat ears, waiting alone at a bus stop. Draw the bus stop sign and simple bench first to anchor the scene, then place her figure seated or standing beside it, hands tucked into her coat pockets, breath visible in the cold air.
The cat ears on the hat should angle slightly outward and forward rather than standing bolt upright, which keeps the whole hat looking soft and knitted rather than like a stiff costume piece. Color the hat in oatmeal with cherry red ear tips, and keep the bus stop and background in cooler baby blue and grey tones for contrast.
A small puff of visible breath in pale grey near her mouth is a nice quick addition that instantly sells the cold without needing any extra detail elsewhere on the page.
If a full bus stop structure feels like too much, a single leaning sign post is enough context on its own.
Palette: Oatmeal,Cherry Red,Baby Blue,Charcoal Grey
Step into a cozier interior with a woman in a felted wool cloche hat, seated at a vintage tea room table. Draw the teacup and small table first as the focal point, then build her figure around it, cloche hat pulled low and close to the head, one hand lifting the cup toward her mouth.
A cloche sits very differently from a beret or beanie: draw it as a smooth, snug dome that comes down almost to the eyebrows, with no visible hair at the sides, which is the detail that makes it read as a cloche rather than any other hat shape. Color the hat in a soft moss green or oatmeal felt tone, and let the tea room interior stay warm with cherry red accents on the table setting.
If you enjoy this quieter cafe mood, it pairs nicely with the gentler scenes in winter morning drawing ideas for a cozy little series.
Keep the background soft and slightly blurred in value so the hat and the cup stay the sharpest details on the page.
Palette: Moss Green,Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey
Add some humor with a dog trotting along, proudly carrying its owner’s fallen hat in its mouth. Draw the dog’s trotting stance first, head held high, then place the hat gently gripped between its teeth, slightly squashed and off-shape from the bite, which sells the joke of the scene.
The hat’s distorted shape is the fun detail here: let one edge of the brim or the ribbed band dip or pucker where the dog’s mouth holds it, rather than drawing a perfectly intact hat just floating near the jaw. Color the hat in cherry red against the dog’s simpler oatmeal or grey coat, keeping the contrast clear.
If a trotting pose feels tricky, slow the dog to a standing pose instead, hat held proudly, which is an easier stance to balance and still tells the same story.
A single footprint trail behind the dog in the snow is a nice optional touch if you want to suggest the chase that led here.
Palette: Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue
Return to a travel moment with a girl in a faux fur hat, stepping off a train into a snowy station. Draw the train door and step first, then place her figure mid-step, one foot still on the train, suitcase in hand, hat framing her face in a soft rounded halo.
Faux fur texture is drawn differently from knit: use short, slightly uneven flicked lines all around the hat’s edge rather than smooth rib lines, which gives it that fluffy, slightly wild look real fur trim has. Color the hat in oatmeal with a soft grey undertone in the shadowed fur, and keep the station background simple with a hint of platform and falling snow.
If the flicked fur lines start looking too uniform, vary their length and angle slightly as you go, since real fur never lies in one perfectly even direction.
Swap the suitcase for a shoulder bag if you want a lighter, more casual version of the same scene.
Palette: Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue,Cherry Red
Soften the pace with a baby in a pixie bonnet, tucked snugly into a pram. Draw the pram hood first as a simple curved shell shape, then nestle the baby’s round face inside it, with just enough of the bonnet’s pointed tip peeking above the forehead to read clearly as a pixie shape.
The bonnet’s little point at the top is the detail that separates it from a plain round hat: keep it soft and slightly curled rather than sharp, like the tip naturally flops to one side under its own weight. Color the bonnet in a pale blush or baby blue, and let the pram itself stay in a simple charcoal grey or oatmeal.
If round baby faces feel tricky to get right, keep the features small and centered low on the face, with a larger gap of smooth cheek above them than you might expect, which is what reads as babyish proportion.
A single knitted blanket corner tucked over the pram edge finishes the cozy feeling without adding much extra drawing.
Palette: Blush Pink,Baby Blue,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey
Pause on a quiet still life: a wool hat drying on a radiator beside a pair of wet mittens. Draw the radiator’s ribbed shape first, then drape the hat over the top rib, slightly flattened and stretched from the drying process, with the mittens laid flat just beside it.
Wet wool looks different from dry wool: darken the lower half of the hat and mittens slightly with a second pass of the same marker color, since damp fabric reads darker and heavier than dry, which is the one detail that makes this still life feel like a real moment rather than a flat product shot.
If blending two tones of the same color feels tricky, let the darker damp area dry completely before adding the lighter dry color above it, so the two values stay distinct rather than muddying together.
Swap the radiator for a wooden clothes rack if ribbed lines are giving you trouble today.
Palette: Moss Green,Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue
Bring back some playfulness with a toddler wearing a knit hat topped with a row of soft dinosaur spikes along the ridge. Draw the head shape first, then build the row of spikes along the center top of the hat as a line of small triangular points, each one slightly different in size to keep them looking knitted rather than printed.
Keep the spikes soft-edged rather than sharp, rounded triangle shapes rather than pointed ones, which matches the knitted material and keeps the hat looking cuddly instead of fierce. Color the main hat in moss green and the spike ridge in a contrasting oatmeal or cherry red.
If evenly spacing the spikes feels fiddly, lightly mark five or six small dots along the center ridge first as placement guides before drawing the actual triangle shapes over them.
A big gap-toothed grin on the toddler’s face is a nice finishing touch that matches the playful energy of the hat itself.
Palette: Moss Green,Cherry Red,Oatmeal,Blush Pink
Close out the scenes with a woman in a wide-brim wool hat, walking through a snowy vineyard. Draw the rows of bare vine trellises first, receding into the distance in simple parallel lines, then place her figure walking between two rows, wide brim shading her face slightly from above.
The wide brim casts a soft shadow across the upper face, similar to the fedora idea earlier but broader and more rounded in shape: keep that shadow band gentle and curved rather than a hard straight line, since the brim itself curves around the head. Color the hat in oatmeal or charcoal grey, the bare vines in simple brown and grey, and the snow between rows in pale baby blue shadow.
If you want to vary this one next time, swap the vineyard for a snowy orchard or a row of bare trees and keep the same wide-brim hat and walking pose.
Keep the trellis lines converging gently toward one point in the distance to give the rows real depth.
Palette: Oatmeal,Charcoal Grey,Baby Blue,Moss Green
Finish the list with a group moment: friends comparing silly knit hats at a winter fair. Draw three or four figures loosely clustered together first, each gesturing toward another’s hat, then give each hat a different exaggerated feature, oversized pom-poms, extra-long ear flaps, a lopsided knit pattern, so the comparison itself reads clearly.
Vary the hat colors widely here, cherry red, moss green, oatmeal and baby blue all in one small group, since this is the one scene in the whole set built around contrast rather than a single unifying color. Keep the figures’ expressions simple but clearly amused, raised eyebrows and open laughing mouths read well even at a small scale.
If drawing several figures together feels like a lot for one sitting, drop to two friends instead of three or four and keep the same comparing gesture.
One concrete tip to finish on: draw every hat last, after all the figures are fully inked, so you can judge the group’s overall color balance before committing to any single hat’s color.
Palette: Cherry Red,Moss Green,Oatmeal,Baby Blue
What to Do Next
Pick one hat that caught your eye, grab your fineliner and one or two markers, and start today on plain marker paper with the hat itself before anything else in the scene. Once that first one feels finished, the rest of the list makes an easy string of quick sittings to come back to.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the easiest hat to start with in hat drawing for a beginner?
A simple beanie is easiest since it is just a rounded dome with a ribbed band, no brim or stiff structure to manage. Start there before trying a beret, trapper hat or cloche, which all need an extra shape decision.
How do you keep a hat from looking too flat on the head?
Give the hat a slight overlap at the band where it meets the hair or ears, and curve its outline to match the roundness of the head beneath it. A hat drawn as a flat shape stuck on top always looks pasted rather than worn.
What markers work best for smooth hat drawing color?
Alcohol-based markers blend most smoothly for flat, even color on a hat’s knit or felt surface. Lay the lightest color first, work quickly while it is still slightly wet, and use a colorless blender to soften any harsh edges.
How do you make a knit pattern look convincing without overworking it?
Draw two or three repeated shapes, ribs, cables or a simple herringbone, rather than covering the whole hat in fine detail. A few confident, evenly spaced marks read as knitwear far better than many small scratchy lines.
Can these hat drawing ideas work with colored pencil instead of marker?
Yes, colored pencil suits the same subjects well, just build color in light layers rather than one flat pass. Expect softer blending and a slightly longer finish time than alcohol markers give.