How to draw houses and buildings

Buildings are the most forgiving thing to draw, because nobody has to look like anybody. A box, a triangle on top, and you already have a house. Everything after that is decoration.

How do you draw a house or a building?

Start with a box and put a triangle on top, and make the triangle WIDER than the box. That overhang is the whole difference between a house and a tent, and it is the one thing beginners leave out. Then add the parts in order: chimney, door, windows, panes, knob. Buildings are the most forgiving subject on this site, because a wall that leans a little just looks hand drawn, never wrong.

Draw the guide shapes as rectangles here, not ovals. A house has no curves to plan for, and a box guide tells your hand the truth about what is coming.

How to draw a house How to draw a house 8 steps · Ages 4-10

Why buildings are the best place to start

Every other subject on this site has to look like something. A dog has to look like a dog. A building only has to look like a building, and a building is a box. Nobody will ever tell you that your house looks nothing like the house they had in mind, because there is no house they had in mind.

The order that works

Big shape, roof, roof furniture, openings, details. Walls before windows, always: a window drawn before the wall it sits in will end up in the wrong place on the wall, and there is no way to fix it except to move the wall.

What comes next

Castles are the same house with the roof replaced by battlements. A city is the same house repeated at different widths and heights. A bridge is the only one that breaks the rule, and it is worth learning for exactly that reason.

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