How to Draw A Snowflake

Learn how to draw a snowflake made from a simple shape, but filled with visually interesting digital effects! The great thing about snowflakes is that they are all different. Therefore, you can create your own snowflake and sketch a shape that doesn't look like the one below. 

Whether you decide to draw the exact shape below or not doesn't really matter. I will show you how to add some cool effects to make sure that your cartoon snowflake is visually interesting and fun to look at. Are you ready to draw? :)

A video version to start with

You can start learning how to create a beautiful cartoon snowflake using the video tutorial found below. Once you are familiar with the subject and want to add more effects to it, simply scroll down for the written version of this drawing lesson. :)

Step 1

Great! The first step is to draw the shape of the snowflake. Start by sketching the shapes represented with black outlines below. I like to draw shapes that are made with irregular lines. Otherwise, the illustration might look too polished, too perfect. 

Then, duplicate all shapes and make a 90 degrees rotation to create the shapes filled with a red outline. Finally, select all shapes (black and red) and duplicate these elements. Make a 45 degrees rotation for all new shapes.

Step 2

Once you are done, merge all shapes together. You should end up with something similar to the cartoon illustration below. 

Step 3

Next, you can fill the cartoon snowflake with a solid blue color. Once this color is added, you can remove the black outline. 

Step 4

Select the gradient fill tool available in your vector application. Then, add a brighter blue color on top of the object. As you can see below, the bottom is now darker and the top is quite brighter. 

Step 5

Now you need to duplicate the shape you created to illustrate the snowflake and make this one smaller. Then, fill this new shape in white and use transparency to partially hide the bottom of this new shape. The new shape is illustrated with a pink outline, but you don't need to add this color to your illustration. 

Step 6

This is the cartoon snowflake so far once the pink outline is removed. The effect is already interesting and you could even stop the tutorial right here if you want to. As far as I am concerned, I prefer to go one step further (or maybe two!)   :)

Step 7

Duplicate the white shape and change the color to a bright blue color. This time, use transparency to hide the top of the shape.

Step 8

This is the result so far. If you can't see the difference, simply compare this illustration with the one from step number six. Look at the bottom of the image (on the left) to see the newest addition. 

Step 9

Finally, create another large shape behind the snowflake (as seen below with the pink outline). This new element can be filled with a light blue color. You can use transparency to hide the outlines and the shape (but just a little bit).

This is how to draw a snowflake with cool effects! :)

Nice work! This is the final illustration. I hope you had fun learning how to draw a snowflake like the one visible below. Don't hesitate to draw more snowflakes using your own shapes and by experimenting new digital effects.

Have fun! :)

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