How to draw buildings and houses

Humans have found uncountable designs for their homes, but the majority of houses we see are variations of a simple rectangular box. So there is no reason to shy away from this subject at all. Take your sketchbook go out and note your observations, it is rewarding.



Below an art print based on the sketchbook drawing.

Artprint rural village landscape print by editionha
Browse Rural Posters

Basic understanding of so called linear perspective is helpful when drawing houses and buildings. However in the majority of situations reality deviates from the simple models that are used to explain perspective. Then nothing but patient observation helps.

Let´s analyse the sketchbook drawing below:



I made a computer printout of this sketch and added a couple of lines for explanations. The numbers in the image correspond to the remarks I will make. (click on images to enlarge)



The "eyeline" or horizontal line and vanishing points.
A vanishing point is a point in a perspective drawing to which parallel lines appear to converge (wiki).

Before starting to draw a relatively complicated looking scenery I found it helpful to answer two questions.
1. Where is the "eyeline" or the horizon line in this image ?
2. Where are the vanishing points ?

Answer to question 1.:
The horizon or eye line is the horizontal line that divides your view literally in height of your eyes in two areas, on that you look up to and one that you look down to.
Line Nr. 6 (marked yellow) is the horizontal line in my drawing. It is fairly low because I was sitting on a small chair. You can determine this line by ocular arbitration. Often there are edges of subjects that coincide with the horizontal line too which makes it even easier. But there is another thing that helps, it is the answer to question 2.

Answer to question 2.:
The vanishing points are sitting always on the horizontal line. That´s a rule :). If you want to get an idea about the distortion that is visible in the perspective of your subject you can find out easily by a simple construction which is represented in my drawing by the lines No. 1+2 . These are two vertical edges of a house front. Both lines have the same length in reality, but from our point of view line 1 is shorter than line 2. (due to perspective) By simple measurements you can determine the (relative) length of these two lines. Then you connect the 2 points at the top and the bottom and prolong them until they meet at some point. The meeting point is a vanishing point.All horizontal lines on that house front have to converge into the same vanishing point. If you connect the vanishing points with a line you have constructed your horizontal line. This way you can check whether your first idea of the horizontal line has been correct or not.

As you can see there are two vanishing points (A+B)in my drawing and both of them are outside of the limits of the page !! You will meet this condition very often and it will take you directly to the limits of applying a constructed perspective in a drawing.

"Mistakes"
The lines 3+4+5 seem to be fully in compliance with the requirements of correct perspective. But there are some interesting mistakes in this drawing.

Line No. 7
Line 7 does not meet the vanishing point A. This is either a mistake in my drawing or it could be that the framework is not completely exact i.e. not 100% parallel. (Here it´s a drawing mistake :)).

Vanishing point B
I checked vanishing point B with some lines. Lines 8+9+10 should meet in point B,which is outside of the sketchbook page. But it is very obvious that the second vanishing point is not properly determined by these lines. For that reason the right side of the house is not too convincing. In fact I was not much interested in that part of the drawing, but much more in the look down the street.

The cars
As said before the horizontal line is relatively low as I sat on a chair. However the eye line touches the car which is parked on the left at the roof! To see the car that way I should have been standing and not sitting !

Here is a simplified construction sketch of the basics discussed. To be on a safe side you can measure the size of the lines 1-3 and construct the vanishing point(s) and the horizon line. The way how to measure in a simple way is explained in my lens Efficient drawing tips



Why is the construction of correct perspective often not applied ?
In the majority of perspective drawings, even from the great masters there are "mistakes". Go and analyse drawings by Dürer or the great paintings by Canaletto. You will find spots were they have twisted the thing.

The rules for the construction of vanishing points apply only for strictly parallel lines. As soon as a house front is not parallel to the neighbour house a different vanishing point has to be constructed. Drawings that are based strictly on a single vanishing point often look boring and sterile, the viewer feels that this is not real.


This is an arial view on a street. In reality houses are mostly not 100% parallel to each other or the street as A suggests, the view B is much closer to reality.. As a result a multitude of vanishing points would be necessary to come to a correctly drawn perspective. As soon as you know and see this freehand drawing is king !

Also often there is not much of a chance to construct something outdoors especially when you look downhill and the horizon line cannot be placed on your drawing paper.

This ink drawing was done on site without any construction aid on paper only by observation and using ocular arbitration to determine size and location of the buildings by their relations to each other. I only had to remember the basics some times on certain cases to check whether the rooflines or other parts of the drawing would make sense.

Apart from the interesting architectural features a building might have there are many details in materials which can be discovered. It is up to the artist to decide whether he/she wants to put emphasize on wooden panels, some weathered concrete or the pattern of a brick wall.

In representation of the materials is a great creative potential to explore all kinds of mark making in order to catch the properties of what is seen.

Drawing roofs can be a special challenge depending on the material and the perspective. In many cases the artists has to find abreviations , special marks and patterns to represent an uncountable number of roof tiles. On the right there is a simple demonstration how the roof patters change with perspective.
Here is also a great detailed example for roof tiles on the net:
A view from my lounge - Blogpost by Bobbywashere
There is also a great drawing of a wet roof on the urban sketchers blog by Martin Etienne

When you go out in your neighbourhood you to study the roofs you quickly will get addicted to roof studies.

Below is one of my sketches done in France at the village Banon. The houses of Provence have typical roofs with roof tiles that are widely used in the mediterranean region.

Monotype print : size 20"X28"

Framework house drawing pattern by editionha
View more pillows.

Windows are the "eyes" of a house and they are worth while to be studied. Sometimes it is necessary to find abreviations as there are too many,but sometimes a detailed representation can make the house alive.
On the right there is a sketch made in Istanbul, a fantastic city of thousand faces. I visit Istanbul always with mixed feelings of fascination and fear. The buildings there are so different from what I am used to. Improvisation makes for a lot of the surface of the buildings. TV satellite antennas are the trademark of certain quarters.


These are some studies on windows to get familiar with their construction. By drawing houses one can learn a lot about architecture, but also about how people live.



This is a sketch from my Stuttgart sketchbook which is also published as reprint on Blurb Drawing the urban landscape You can also see some sketches and read the text of the book on a lens Drawing the urban landscape

Chimneys are imprtant visual details on many houses. They connect the house to the sky. Many roofs would be deadly boring without them. In each country,region, city and quarter you will find typical chimneys. Drawing the shadows chimneys cast on roofs can contribute a lot to the charme of a drawing.

Find nice colored roof drawings with chimneys by Lynne Chapman on Urban sketchers.

The example below is a sketch from Belgium the country of comics. Visiting the city of Tournai was a discovery, because I could see that the flair that famous comic strips as Tim&Struppi convey are inspired by reality. Comic strips are a fantastic resource of inspiration by the way.



The sketchbook drawing below was done in several sessions in Winter 2005. There are some nice details here too: the little bell tower,satellite antennas a chimney etc.

Dr. Syntax in search
of the picturesque by editionha

All of my drawing lenses:
How to draw a tree
Landscape drawing - Improve your skills
How to draw a pine tree
How to draw a leaf
How to draw deciduous trees (mostly apple trees:).)
How to draw coniferous trees (some spruce trees)
How to draw buildings and houses
Drawing the urban landscape
Draw people in a landscape
The self portrait - somewhat of an adventure
Face drawing -how to draw a face
How to draw eyes
Artists sketchbooks - little nothings turn into big somethings
Sketching gear - a guide for beginners
How to draw with a pen
How to draw a straight line

Between April 2006 and May 2007 I have worked on an exhibition project about the urban landscape of the city of Stuttgart,Germany.
I have selected more than 30 drawings for a book now available online at BLURB.
The first 15 pages show panoramic drawings together with the essay about the urban landscape and the experience of drawing such a complex subject. The following pages show two panoramic drawings per page without text.

Click on the image to start the preview on Blurb.com

Drawing the urban landscape

Isolated architectural studies are great, but the depiction of a house gets even more interesting when it is placed in the environment, the landscape.

I have taken a small commission project of four pen drawings of a nearby rural village.These are the first two which show the church bell tower from two different view points.

There is an old fashioned, but easy way to draw houses and building very realistic by tracing the drawing from a photograph. For an illustration commission I did a couple of ink drawings this way,because the client wanted to have a very exact depiction.

I printed the photographs in A4 size in black and white on normal copy paper or office paper. Then I distributed fine charcoal powder with a brush in a thin layer on the backside of the printout. This was my self made tracing paper. Then I placed the prepared paper with the charcoal side down on top of a white drawing board. Then I drew with a ball pen on the photograph all those lines I wanted to have in the final drawing. After I had finsished the drawing I lifted the photograph and could see thin charcoal lines on the white drawing board that the pressure with the ball pen had left.

As next step I followed the charcoal lines with India ink. After the ink was dry I removed the traces of charcoal by gently wiping over the drawing with a soft eraser.
The final step was to add some water colours.

Rural landscapes by editionha
sell your posters online on Zazzle.

These drawings are taken from one of my landscape books which follows a tradtion of the 19th century in Europe, as for example represented by the works of Franz Kobell.
All of my drawings are done on site,whereas in the 19th century it was a usual manner to design picturesque landscapes from fantasy. Local studies were mostly used as "material" for the later compositions. However after Claude Lorrain drawing and painting on site became more and more popular until the movement culminated in Impressionism in the late 19 th century.