How to draw a colorful gingerbread man for Christmas with a complete Flash demo.
Gingerbread men are a favorite Christmastime subject to draw. They are so cute and fun! You can leave them plain, make them cute clothes, or make them into girls.
In this demo the artist used a computer painting tool to draw her gingerbread man, but you can get the same effect by using watercolor markers or colored pencils. It is a little more advanced, but with practice a child in elementary school should be able to master this drawing.
The gingerbread man demo can be seen here.
First, an outline of the gingerbread man was made. This can be done in light pencil or with a brown pencil or marker. Notice how he is made with one fluid line and no stopping. This is the easiest way to make a gingerbread man. Just go for it. Make a three-quarter circle for the head and a star-like body.
Next, basic shading was added. The light source is coming from the right, so the edges of the cookie on the left are a dark brown and the edges on the right are a light tan-ish brown.
The eyes and gumdrop buttons were added next. Remember that these are three-dimensional, so they need to be shaded, too. Since the eyes are white icing, the shadow is a light grey towards the center, becoming a darker grey as you get closer to the left edge. The shadows follow the curves of the eye to make it look more rounded and three-dimensional. The gumdrop buttons were made by choosing a medium hue of the color, then using a darker color on the left edge, following the curve, and a lighter color on the right. So, here is the pattern for the gumdrops: dark red, medium red, light red and dark green, medium green, light green.
More highlights were added to make the gingerbread man pop off of the page. Notice how the highlights are not white, but a lighter shade of the rest of the cookie. The highlights were put where the light would be strongest on the cookie in real life.
Last, the colors were blended to keep the shading and highlights from looking too harsh. This last step is important to get a finished look.
Feel free to add a plate, a gingerbread house, or friends for your gingerbread man. Make him as festive as you like. Or, you can cut him out, paste him on cardboard, put a hook on him, and use him for decoration on your Christmas tree.
