How to Draw a Surfboard to Celebrate Christmas in July

Christmas in July? An extra holiday? Sure thing! But I want to give it a tropical theme. Let’s draw a surfboard to celebrate passing the halfway mark to Christmas.

After deciding on this tutorial, I realized that Christmas in July has an actual date, July 25, rather than celebrating the whole month. Makes sense. The ‘real’ Christmas has an actual date, too, but … I still celebrate it all month long.

So, even though I missed the actual date, the tutorial stands. If you’d rather use it to celebrate something else, like a birthday, it will work for that too.

I’m all for celebrating whenever we can, so the idea of an extra holiday in July totally works for me, minus snow. I can’t do snow. Though I look for holidays all over the place, seasons are to be relished and enjoyed for their differences. Snow is amazing in winter, but keep it out of my summer.

Instead of bringing winter to summer, let’s bring a little tropical fun into celebrating Christmas in July. We’ll decorate a surfboard rather than a pine tree. Are you ready to celebrate?

Gather your supplies

Basic calligraphy supplies with Ziller ink
Basic Watercolor supplies
Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketcher’s Pocket Box
Permanent rose pink, for mixing
Crystal Gold Finetec Watercolor, or your favorite shimmery gold

Keep reading for extra tips and tricks or jump to the video.

Draw a Surfboard

Start with a pencil. You don’t have to, but I always feel more comfortable with my strokes if I do. It helps prime our muscles for the shapes.

You can decorate your surfboard however you want to, of course, or you can use these steps to help you make one like mine. I wanted simple, tropical decorations that could be used for Christmas or any other celebration.

(If you would like a printable version of these steps, you can find them with Draw a Surfboard to Celebrate How to Draw Worksheets.)

steps to draw a coconut drink and a surfboard drawing — These steps will help you make a surfboard drawing and a coconut drink for decoration.

When you have the sketch the way you want it, use a calligraphy pen to trace it with ink. Alternate thick and thin strokes to form shadows and highlights or just for a little variation.

surfboard drawing in ink — I even like the black and white version!

Add Watercolor to Make it Pop

Paint the sky in the background first. Use a bright blue; it’s a beautiful day to celebrate.

Next, paint the background of the surfboard a light gray. Use a lot of water to make the gray light enough.

The flowers need a little pop of color. Pink, I think. You can mix it with a little orange to get coral if you prefer. That’s what I did. Start by painting the inside of the flowers with only water. Then tap a touch of pink into the center of them. Leave them alone to blend as they dry.

We’ve worked our way down the page to keep our hands out of the wet paint, so now, we’re ready to paint the sand. Sand is it’s own color. It’s not brown like dirt but more of a tan or light brown. When I paint sand, I mix some areas of a lighter brown or ochre with a few taps of a darker brown. And I leave areas of white for highlights. This makes the color a little less even, like people were walking there.

Paint some sand — Time to paint that beach sand!

Oops! I guess I left that coconut drink for last. Watch that you don’t smudge the rest of your wet painting with your hand as you finish the decorated topper.

Paint the coconut a dark brown. If you accidentally get it too dark, like I did, dry your brush and use the dry bristles to lift some of the color back off the coconut. A few swipes should do it.

Just one more color before we let it dry. I want a pink straw in my drink to match the surfboard.

Give it Some Sparkle

When it’s dry, it’s time to add a bit of shimmer with the crystal gold paint. It will add just the right amount of shine to the lights and the star on the coconut. When you turn your page in the light, it will even look like the lights are turning on and off as they reflect.

A Touch of Calligraphy

Add a Christmas message in calligraphy. If you can’t bring yourself to celebrate Christmas in July, happy birthday will work too. Who wouldn’t love a birthday on the beach?!