How To Draw A Gnome Santa In Procreate

Hi guys, I’m Kris. Welcome to this week’s tutorial. Let’s draw together. In this week’s tutorial, we’ll be drawing a Santa Claus in Procreate, and I’m sure you can create this, too, if you follow along with the video all the way to the end. If you feel rushed, be sure to hit pause and just rewind to catch up, and save this video to your library, so you can re-watch if you need extra practice. Today, we’ll be using all three brushes found in Procreate, and don’t forget, once you finish this entire video, share it on Instagram and tag me in the image, as well as in the description, so I can find your artwork and feature you here on the Next Draw Together video. For this video, I’ve made you a free color palette, in case you like to use the exact colors I’ll be using during this tutorial, and you can just tap on the link below in the video description where you can download and install it into Procreate. Also, below there, you’ll find a link to a goodie bag where you can find some free goodies and support me by visiting my shop there. So let’s get to it and get your pen, and we’re gonna set up our canvas, and I’ll be creating this one at 4000×4000 pixels, 300dpi and sRGB.

Let’s Start

All right, so let’s start this one by grabbing our sketching pencil, so I’m gonna go in the sketching section and grab my 6B, that’s fine, and I’m just gonna use this charcoal color, and I’m as always, start with a few shapes. This is gonna be a funny Santa, he’s gonna be a little bit more on the triangular side, so let’s start with that. His basic body shape is gonna be… Oh, I don’t know, like that , kind of a funny guy, and then I’m gonna have a hat on him, of course, and that’s going to be another triangle, like that, and then his beard is gonna be an inverted triangle, something like that. So quite gnome-like, I know that’s kind of in right now, but it’s kind of a gnome Santa. I don’t know, sort of, sort of but not quite. And his hat’s gonna come around like that, something like that, right? I don’t know what that doodle is. Anyway, it goes like that, and his hat’s gonna have some fur here, so you can see already we’re seeing Santa a little bit.

 

So we’re just gonna put his nose right here, the beard maybe will come like that. I don’t know, some feet , something like that, and I’m gonna give, do that belt down here, give him a big old belt buckle, and, actually, I might just bring this up. So I’m gonna click on this S squiggly line, be in freehand and add, and just grab it with my little pointer and bring that up a bit. I forgot I need some room for the trim of his coat here. Something like that, and then that will be the trim. Kind of like that. This will be all like that, and then I’m just gonna have his funny little arms. One will be coming in like that. His little hand, maybe just like a circle and a little thumb, and we will have him kind of saying hey, like that. Something along those lines.

This Little Santa…

This little Santa is part of my new winter pack that’s out right now, or will be out soon, I think, if it’s not already. He was really fun to make. All right, so already Santa’s looking pretty good. Just being really loose, I think, at the beginning of your drawing is really fun and just keeps you, makes your lines a little bit more interesting, not too rigid. That’s why I always love to do a sketch before I do my final sketch. I don’t go straight to sort of my official line work. I like just to work it out, keep it loose, make mistakes, all that kind of good stuff. Yeah, so that’s looking good so far. I’m just gonna go in and add another layer on top and bump our rough sketch way back down to, I don’t know, 15%, something like that, and we’ll start going over with our final line work.

 

I’m just gonna grab this brown color, and I’m gonna go into inking and get my dry ink that I love to use for my line work, and just go and get some lines down. I’m gonna keep it kind of loose and a little bit scratchy. Sorry, I’m gonna tell you exactly what line weight I’m gonna use. It is gonna be at 8%, and that’s gonna be at 100 opacity, so just keeping it a little loose. I want this to be a little bit of a more sketchy drawing. I’ll go in there. I’m just using the different pressure on the pen to create some interest. That’s good. This actually is going to be a bell, so I’m gonna just make these little lines here, like that. Something like that, and let me do his coat right now.

 

I’ll just seal in a little bit for you here, just for these little wisps, just kind of for the furry, just keep it light, and we’ll give him a hand, a little thumb, just a thumb and a round bit like that. More of a he.  Okay? And then bringing his arm in. Little bits for the fur, kind of round in the circle here. That’s pretty good. Get that belt, and then make it just so it looks like it’s coming around there like that. It’s not a completely flat line. You can see that little bit there. Makes it a little bit more rounded. And then for belts, you’re always gonna have this tab that comes over, and then around in the circle that goes into, and then the big belt buckle, something like that. Alright, oops… And around.

Little Shoesies?

So I’m gonna give him his little shoesies. Little platform to his shoes and they’re gonna be kind of, I don’t know, rectangular a little bit, a rounded rectangle. Good. And then we’re just gonna do… This is gonna all be fluffy, so I’m gonna try to keep it irregular, a little bit rounded, kind of like that. Hopefully you can see that. Okay, let’s get his nose here, and these little whiskers are going… Woops, not exactly how I wanted it. Okay, so these little wispies, his nose is gonna be covering them a little bit. Actually, I wanna make this a little bit thicker. This wispy, wispy. Actually, I want these a bit rounder too. Okay, his little hat, then his beard is just gonna come… Actually, the guy I made did have a little bit of a curl, but you don’t want it to touch, and I’ve gone too low, so it’s gonna come up like that. There. Woops… Just a few thinner dashes just with using a lighter pressure on my pen just to do that, not quite as thick of a stroke. This little variation makes it look better, I think.

 

Okay, almost there. And then his little face, so his beard is gonna just come from here. I shouldn’t apply it too wispy, just like that, and his little eyes are gonna be in here. Oops, let’s make them closer. These circles are not working out here. There we go. Better. And his little mouth is just gonna be a light pressure and a push, like that. There he is. So now I can just turn off that layer below and just erase that mistake, and then we are ready to do some more details. So with the line work, I’m actually gonna go and find the hair brush, and it is somewhere around here in touch-ups, and I’m just gonna use the fine hair and see how that goes, just to do… Yeah, so I’m gonna have it at… Let’s see… It is at 10%. Let me just try the short hair, too. No, I don’t like that. Okay, I like the fine hair, and I’m just gonna give him just some edges here, just edges to the fur, and just a few little swipes. It’s just gonna give us a little shading actually and just a little line work, so keep it irregular, but with the flow of where the hairs would go.

More Texture

Just giving us a little bit more texture on this, and I’m gonna do it a little bit over here sort of get the… Sort of the direction of where the beard is going a little bit. I’m gonna throw some in here too, just little… Again, I want this to be more of a textured piece. Been with that. This bit is too… Oops, ____. This makes it look a little fluffy. And oh, I realized I’ve forgotten one bit of this outfit here. One very Santa-esque outfit, and that’s the fluff that comes down the front here that we need to add… Okay, so I wanna just go back to my inking with that dry brush and just add this bit. So we have a bit of a line here, and then you’re gonna have the rest of his little suit here. Right. It was just that bit, so I will go back to… What did I say was in touch ups? Fine hair, and just add this little bits here.

 

Okay. So then I’m just gonna go back and grab my inking brush and the dry brush and just add the rest of this detail. I’m gonna erase this line here and I’m gonna add the belt in here like that, so that would end there. Okay. That finishes that up. Okay, I don’t think we’re missing anything else, so I’m just gonna go on and delete my sketch layer, we really don’t need that anymore. Create a new layer and pop that underneath our line layer. And I’m going to fill in all the sections and solid fill first, and then I’ll show you how I’m gonna paint them. So I’m just gonna go grab the red. At this point, it actually really doesn’t matter which color, but we’ll go with the red, and I’m gonna grab my studio pen and just go around filling this in. And then I’m just gonna drag my color and fill that going in there.

Create Another Layer

Okay. And then I’m gonna go and create another layer and fill that in with the skin color, so that would just be his face here. And then on this layer, I’m gonna just do the yellow as well, so… ‘Cause they’re not gonna be touching. So that’s alright. Okay, and then in the layer below, I’m just gonna add another one and use that charcoal, and do his gloves and belt and shoes. Okay. So there we have our basic… Oops, missed a mitten, almost had it. There we go. Okay, so there we have our basic Santa color, and that’s fine, we can do this, but I would prefer to make it more painted and a little bit more interesting, so I’m going to go in and fill… Instead of having these colors, I’m gonna actually fill them all with white and then I’m gonna paint over top and use that kind of as a solid fill, so that if we’re doing PNGs that they’re all solid where we’ve painted as well as I can just paint within these lines by using clipping masks. So I’m gonna start with the Santa, and I can just go ahead with the white and drag and drop the white in there, and same with the black layer. Take that.

 

Or you can just use a clipping mask, it would be quicker,  or just like this. So you add another layer on top. Click it. Click. Click it. Clipping mask and then just drag it in there, and then you just can merge down. So that’s two ways to do it. So now it looks like we’re back near at the beginning again, but don’t worry, we’re gonna have some fun. So click on your layer to where you have Santa’s main coat, like the red color, hit plus, click on your layer five and hit clipping mask. Let’s grab that lighter red color and go find some interesting paint brushes to paint with. So I’m gonna start with the Spectra brush, and I’m going to… It looks like this. I’m gonna bump this up to maybe about 30% and just lightly wash. And I’m gonna go over again, I just wanted to look texture-y, and you can see nice textures here, just lightly, so if I push hard, of course, it’s gonna be like that, and if I go really lightly, it just adds a little bit.

 

More to it. Okay, so I’m gonna leave it like that, and then I’m going to go… Actually, I gonna skip on this red and let’s try another brush. Let’s do the stucco and just… It’s gonna be at… Let’s go with 30% with us as well. Just slightly go over him like this. Lots and lots of texture. Okay, and then I’m gonna go grab that darker red and go get the Fresco. Let’s see what this does. Perfect. Okay, so I’m gonna be at 30% again, just lightly. Getting some sort of that painted bits on it here too. Alright, just little circles and maybe few splotches. Gets it off. Okay, so that’s looking good. I’m gonna go and add another layer on top of that and also make that a clipping mask. So, these two will be paired to the one below. Gonna grab that yellow, and use that gouache, and just give a little subtle color. Just really lightly, just to the side, just to the edges a little bit. Not too much. Don’t go crazy. Just a little interest. Here, I don’t know if you can see it or not, but here, I’ll show you. So, that’s filled out with, just warms it up a little bit.

Grab The Blue

And then I’m gonna go grab the blue, do the opposite on this side, just giving it a little bit of cooler tone. My gouache is… Well, actually my gouache can be about 25. Might be a little bit easier. There we go. Okay, and then I’m just gonna go above the red layer and add another layer and get that dark red again. Continue with my gouache. Bring that down to about 10 and just to focus on so many shadows here. So, just where there would be some. Making him look a little bit more rounded. Maybe a little bit under the beard. Under this hat here, maybe bring that down to maybe about five just to get these fold bits here. Back up to 10. I think it may have ended up at 12. It’s alright. Just trying give this, so it’s not too flat. Good stuff. Okay. So, then, I’m going to go to the belt, like the black layer. So, the belts, and the shoes, and the little mitts, add a layer on top of that, click on that clipping mask and go in and grab that charcoal and stay with my gouache for minute here, and just get that belt going. Just layering. And I’m gonna grab maybe that, let’s do the Fresco, bring it back to you about 10… Well, that wasn’t 10%. 10%. Just getting that in there.

 

Different textures on here. As you can see, they just have a little bit more interest then just flat colors. Okay, and then we’ll do the yellow layer. So, I’m gonna click on that layer 3, add the plus, click on it again, and clipping masks, and go and grab that warm orange. We can stick with the Fresco. That’s fine for now, and as I layer it, it gets darker, which is nice, and fill that in. Good, okay, so I’m also going to, while we’re on this layer, do that skin color, and I’m gonna grab the gouache and just color in his little face here. So, I’m gonna pick up that lighter red color and just really lightly, just give him a little bit of warmth on his nose. Actually, I’m gonna make it just a little bit smaller, maybe about five. Just a little warmth on his nose. Maybe give him a little color and his cheeks.

 

That’s good. Okay, we’re getting there. While we’re here, I can go to the very top above my… At the very top layer, just add the plus sign, I’m gonna add some highlights. So grab the white, and I’m gonna go back and get my inking, the dry ink brush. Just do a few highlights here and there. I want on his nose. Let me get the smudge tool and I can just leave it on… I can have it on vine charcoal or even just the soft brush or the airbrush, have it to about 2% and 80% opacity, and just… On that just a little bit, just not as quite so hard there. Okay, grab the white again and just give it a little highlight on here. Maybe a bit on top a little bit. His little shoes. Have a little something. I don’t know if the top of his belt leather might pick it up a little bit. So we’re gonna take our blender again and just blend that just a little bit. There. Okay. You know what? I know this is cloth, but I’m just gonna put a little bit up here too, and just give that a bit of a better blend. There. Okay. So then I’m going to grab the blue color and grab… Let’s see, I’m gonna go back to the painting and get the… Let’s do this ____ go back to the layers, and I’m gonna go… Layer am I going to do. Actually, it doesn’t matter. We can stay on this highlight layer for this, so I’m just gonna do a little bit.

The Finish

I’m gonna bring this down to about 8% and just where… Bring this down to about 60% and just add a little bit in where… Just really lightly, just to add to where all the white is, just to add a bit of shadow, show that it has a texture there. Do that along the beard, just really like… I’m not pushing hard. Just really lightly kind of circles again. Maybe a little bit along here too. Just feathery. Give it a little bit more dimension. Alright, he’s looking good. Okay, what often I like to do is just go back to my line layer and go grab that brown again and the inking, the dry ink, just really sometimes bump up a few bits and pieces, just getting some… Make sure the lines are the way I want them to be. I give a few bit of shading lines. Not like that. My outlined to be fairly strong. A little bit of shading along here. Just a little bit sketch here in some places. Good. I really want this to pop out in front. Okay. And last, I’m going to back to my highlights layer. I forgot the last little highlight. Let’s just give him a little dot on these eyes here. And there we go, I think he’s done for today, so I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, and if you did, please hit that like button and subscribe and don’t forget to hit the bell icon so you can be notified of new tutorials, just like this one. Every week I post every single Tuesday. So thank you so much for watching, I love you guys and I’ll see you in the next one.