the nightmare before christmas drawing

A Nightmare Before Christmas has become one of the most beloved animated films of all time, despite the fact that it has quite a unique and subversive premise!

It is a film that both fans of Christmas and Halloween can come together and enjoy, and it follows the story of Jack Skellington and Sally among many unique characters.

We have a special treat for fans that would like to learn how to draw Nightmare Before Christmas in this guide!

If you are one of those fans, then you'll want to read all the way through this guide.

We hope you have a great time working on this fantastic step-by-step guide on how to draw Nightmare Before Christmas!

What's in this Blog Post

How to Draw Nightmare Before Christmas – Let's Get Started!
- Step 1
- Step 2 – Next, draw her hair and body
- Step 3 – Draw the outline details for the drawing
- Step 4 – Now, draw Jack into the picture
- Step 5 – Finish off the details for your Nightmare Before Christmas drawing
- Step 6 – Finish off your drawing with some color
- Your Nightmare Before Christmas Drawing is Complete!

How to Draw Nightmare Before Christmas – Let's Get Started!

Step 1

To kick off this guide on how to draw Nightmare Before Christmas, we will start with one of the characters we mentioned earlier in the guide: Sally!

The characters in the film have a very distinctive look to them that fits nicely in the style of the producer of the movie, Tim Burton.

With this style, characters will usually have really big eyes with small mouths, and Sally is no exception. You can start off with a curved line for the outline of her face.

Then, use some big, rounded shapes for her eyes and then draw some small dots for her pupils. You can also add some small lines on top for her eyelashes.

Then, we will be adding some stitches to show off her scarecrow-like nature. You can draw some lines for her mouth that have several smaller vertical lines going along it.

You can draw her small, smiling mouth on the center of this line and add more stitching near her eye.

Step 2 – Next, draw her hair and body

In this part of your Nightmare Before Christmas drawing, we will be drawing the rest of Sally's hair and body.

Her hair flows down quite straight from her head, and we will be adding lots of line detail to it to give it the appearance of real hair.

Then, using the reference image, you can then create the rest of her arms and body along with the dress that she is wearing. Then it's on to step 3, so let's move on!

Step 3 – Draw the outline details for the drawing

There will be a cool border with some background details that we will be working on for this guide on how to draw Nightmare Before Christmas.

This border will help to represent the dark and quirky tone of the movie perfectly! First, start by drawing a curved line from Sally's face down to the bottom of her hair.

We will be making it look like there is a circle behind them, so try to make it as circular as possible. Then, add some wavy horizontal lines coming from this circle, and then draw some twisty detailing coming from the lines as well to give it an almost vine-like look!

For an extra fun touch, we will be adding Jack Skellington's pet ghost dog, Zero, to the border. You can draw him in the forefront of the image for a fun base for Jack and Sally.

Step 4 – Now, draw Jack into the picture

You've been doing a great job on this Nightmare Before Christmas drawing so far, so now it's time to add the man himself: Jack Skellington!

As his name implies, Jack is a skeleton, but he will still be drawn with the same style we spoke about earlier.

That means giving him some big eye sockets, and you can draw his mouth as a long line with smaller lines going horizontally through it.

Then, draw his rounded head shape before extending his neck down. He will then have an extravagant collar that fans out from a central broach at his neck, and you can finish off the rest of the suit he is wearing.

Finally, you can draw the other half of the circle behind them on his side, and be sure to extend the same twisty lines that you did before.

Step 5 – Finish off the details for your Nightmare Before Christmas drawing

This step of your Nightmare Before Christmas drawing will be all about adding some final touches to the picture before you color it in!

We will mainly be adding some extra details to Sally's body to make her look even more as she does in the film, but you can also add more lines to the circular background as well.

Then you have finished the drawing and are ready for the final step! Before you move on, be sure to add any extra details of your own that you may like.

Perhaps you could draw the title of the film below them to turn this into an awesome Nightmare Before Christmas poster!

Step 6 – Finish off your drawing with some color

Now it's time to finish off your incredible Nightmare Before Christmas drawing with some amazing colors!

In our reference image, we showed you the colors for the characters as they appear in the film.

Jack has a more muted grey color scheme, while Sally has red hair with green skin along with blue and yellow clothing.

We then used some yellow for the circular background, but you should feel free to change up any of the colors as you like!

We can't wait to see what colors and art mediums you choose for this picture!

Your Nightmare Before Christmas Drawing is Complete!

We hope that this guide on how to draw A Nightmare Before Christmas made this drawing fun, easy and not at all spooky to take on!

There were lots of details to draw in this picture, so we aimed to break it down into smaller, more manageable steps for you to take on. Don't forget that you can add your own details, elements, colors and art mediums that you may like!

When you're ready for the next drawing challenge, you can check out our website! We have tons of guides covering anything from more awesome movie characters to common objects and animals.

We upload new guides often as well, so please do visit often!

Once your Nightmare Before Christmas drawing is complete, we would love to share in the spooky fun! You can share your artwork on our Facebook and Pinterest pages for us to enjoy. how to draw Nightmare Before Christmas in 6 easy steps