A cabin with a sod roof and a goat on itLow log walls and a thick roof with a grassy, uneven top edge. The goat stands near the ridge.
A cliffside house hanging over the sea on bracketsHalf the floor sticks out past the rock. Draw the braces beneath it as triangles, darker than the house.
A crooked old house propped up by timber beamsTilt every vertical a different amount, but keep the floors level so it still looks lived in.
A cross-section of a house with every room showingSlice off the front wall. Draw the floors as thick lines and give each room one thing that names it.
A doghouse built to match the house behind itSame roof slope, same siding, same colour door. Put the dog's name over the opening.
A farmhouse with a wraparound porch and a tire swingThe porch roof is a second, flatter roof below the main one. Posts at even gaps hold it up.
A garden shed with a crooked stovepipe and tools leaning on itA small box with a slanted roof. A rake, a spade and a broom lean against one wall.
A house built into a hillside with a round doorThe hill is the roof. Only the front wall shows: a circle door, two round windows, a chimney in the grass.
A house drawn with a single line, door to chimney and backStart at the doorstep and do not lift the pen. Trace over a wall twice if you have to.
A house made of only rectangles and one triangleA box, a roof, a door, two windows. Get the door a third of the wall's height and the rest follows.
A house on a hill with a path of stepping stonesThe stones are ovals that shrink and crowd together as they climb. The house sits small at the top.
A house on stilts over a tide lineDraw the floor first as a flat slab. The posts lean a little and carry a dark band where the water reaches.
A house on the back of a truck, mid-moveThe whole house rides a flatbed, a little too wide for the road. Curtains still in the windows.
A house under construction: studs, rafters and one boarded wallUpright studs at even gaps, sloped rafters above, and one wall already covered.
A house with a tower room and a weather vaneAdd a square or eight-sided tower to one corner, a story taller than the roof, with its own pointed cap.
A houseboat with flower boxes and a bicycle on the roofA long flat hull with a cabin set back from both ends. The waterline is one ruled line with ripples under it.
A keeper's cottage leaning against the foot of a lighthouseThe cottage is a low box and the tower a tall cylinder behind it. Overlap them so they read as joined.
A log cabin corner showing how the logs crossDraw the corner close up. Log ends stick out past the wall, alternating from one side and the other.
A narrow row house with a different door on each floorThree stories, one window wide. The front door at street level, a balcony door above, a hatch in the roof.
A porch with a swing seat, a lantern and a welcome matTwo posts, a rail and three steps. The swing hangs from two chains and the mat sits square to the door.
A snowed-in cabin with only the chimney and one window showingMost of the page is white. A curve of drift, a lit square of window, a line of smoke.
A stone cottage with a thatched roof and a smoking chimneyThe thatch is thick and rounds over the eaves. Draw only a few stones near the corners and the door.
A tiny house on a trailer with fold-down stepsA shed-sized box on two wheels with a hitch at one end. One window takes up half the long wall.
A treehouse reached by a rope ladder and a bucket pulleyThe trunk goes straight through the floor. Planks are uneven and the roof is two sheets at different angles.
An A-frame cabin with a full wall of windowsOne big triangle. Divide the front with a few bars and keep the door small to show the scale.
Three houses the same shape, made different with windows aloneTrace one outline three times. Change only the number, size and spacing of the windows.
Castles 16
A castle gatehouse with a raised drawbridgeTwo round towers with a door between them. The bridge stands upright on its chains and the moat is open.
A castle keep with arrow slits and a bannerOne tall square tower. The slits are thin dark dashes. The top edge goes up and down like square teeth.
A castle kitchen with a roasting hearthA wide arched fireplace takes up one wall. Pots hang from hooks and a long table runs down the middle.
A castle mirrored in its moatDraw the castle, then the same shapes upside down below the waterline, broken by a few ripples.
A castle on an island reached by one long bridgeKeep the castle small and the bridge long, with many arches. Reflections are short broken lines.
A castle seen from above, walls and courtyard as a planAn uneven ring of wall with a tower at each bend. Inside, a well, a stable and the main tower.
A castle under construction, wrapped in wooden scaffoldingOne tower finished, one half-height. Poles and planks climb the unfinished side, with a hoist at the top.
A castle wall walk with stairs down to the yardStand on top of the wall. The walkway runs away from you to a tower, with the yard far below on one side.
A chess rook grown into a full-size towerThe same shape as the chess piece: a flared base, a straight shaft, a notched top. Add a door for scale.
A cloud castle with a staircase of smaller cloudsBuild the towers from puffy outlines with flat bottoms. The steps shrink as they drop away.
A fairy-tale castle with too many turretsTall thin towers with pointed caps, each a different height. Overlap them and hang a flag on every one.
A moat, a wall and a bakery inside the gateLook through the open gate. Frame the view with the arch and put a small shop with a sign beyond it.
A ruined castle wall with one window arch left standingA jagged top edge, stones missing in steps. Sky shows through the arch. Grass grows along the top.
A sandcastle drawn as seriously as a real oneBucket-shaped towers with a moat dug round them. Add a shell over the door and a paper flag.
A tower room cut away to show its spiral stairA cylinder with a slice removed. The steps are wedges that wind round a centre post.
A toy castle with a drawbridge on a stringBlocky walls with thick edges, as if cut from wood. The string runs from the bridge to a peg on the wall.
Streets and cities 19
A bridge with a city stacked up behind itThe bridge crosses the lower third. Behind it, overlap buildings so the farthest are palest.
A bus stop with the whole street reflected in its glassDraw the shelter, then the street a second time inside its panels, paler and cut by the frame.
A canal street with doors that open onto waterHouses rise straight from the water. Each has a step, a post and a small boat tied to it.
A city block seen from a rooftop water tankYou are high up. Roofs are flat shapes with stair huts and vents, and the street is a narrow slot.
A city seen from directly above, streets as a gridRule the streets first. Fill each block with roof shapes and leave one block as a green park.
A corner cafe with chairs stacked for the nightWindows on two sides meeting at the corner. One light left on inside, chairs upside down on tables.
A corner house drawn from the corner, both streets running awayThe nearest edge is the tallest line. Both walls shrink toward the two sides of the page.
A food cart on a corner under a striped umbrellaA box on two wheels with a handle. The umbrella is wider than the cart, and a menu board leans beside it.
A market square with a clock towerAn open space ringed by buildings. Stalls with striped covers in the middle, the tower at one side.
A parking garage ramp coiling up five levelsStacked ovals joined by a slope. Each level is a thick slab with a low wall at its edge.
A rooftop garden between two taller buildingsA flat roof with planters, a bench and a string of lights. The walls either side run off the page.
A row of mailboxes and doorbells at an apartment entranceA grid of small boxes, each with a slot and a name card. One stuffed too full, one with no name.
A skyline where every building has a different roofA row of rectangles of different heights. Top them with a point, a dome, steps, a slant, a mast.
A street of shopfronts, each with its own awningDraw one long wall and divide it. Each shop gets a big window, a door set back, and a sign board above.
A subway entrance with stairs going down into the darkA railing on three sides and a sign on a post. The steps get darker as they go down.
A tram stop under a web of overhead wiresRule the wires first, crossing at a few points. The shelter and the rails sit small below them.
An alley of fire escapes and laundry linesTwo tall walls close together. Zigzag stairs on one, lines of washing crossing to the other.
An elevated train line running between buildingsA track on steel legs at second-floor height. Windows look straight onto it from both sides.
Rooftops only: chimneys, tanks, antennas and pigeonsCrop out the streets and the sky line. Fill the page with the clutter on top of the buildings.
Other buildings 19
A bandstand in a parkAn eight-sided platform with thin posts and a roof that rises to a point. Steps on one side.
A barn with a hayloft door and a pulleyA roof that bends partway down each side. A big door below, a small one above with a beam sticking out.
A boathouse with its doors open onto a lakeA shed that stands half in the water. Inside the opening it is dark, with the bow of one boat showing.
A clock tower with a face on each sideShow two sides of a square tower. Both clocks tell the same time, and the far one is squashed narrower.
A covered market hall with open sidesA big roof on rows of posts. Look in under the eaves at stalls, crates and hanging scales.
A diner with a rounded glass cornerA long low building with a band of windows that bends round one end. Stools show in a row inside.
A factory with a sawtooth roof and one tall chimneyThe roof is a row of right triangles, all leaning the same way. The chimney stands off to one end.
A fire station with its doors openA wide box with two tall doorways. The front of a truck shows in one, and a bell hangs above.
A gas station at night, the only light for milesA flat canopy on two posts over the pumps. Everything outside its pool of light stays dark.
A grain silo beside a low shedA tall cylinder with a domed cap and a ladder up one side. The shed makes it look taller.
A greenhouse with one broken paneA frame of thin bars. Draw the plants inside paler than the frame. The broken pane is a jagged star.
A library with columns and a wide flight of stepsEven columns under a triangle. The steps are long thin lines that get closer together as they rise.
A lighthouse with a spiral stripeA tower that narrows toward the top. The stripe climbs it like a ribbon, under a glass room and a small dome.
A movie theatre with a blank marqueeA sign that juts over the sidewalk, edged with bulbs. Leave the letter rows empty or add a made-up title.
A schoolhouse with a bell on the roofOne room, a steep roof, a small open tower holding the bell. Steps up to a door in the middle.
A train station with an arched glass roofOne great curve over the platforms, divided into panes by thin ribs. The trains sit small beneath.
A water tower on four legsA round tank with a cone lid, on legs that spread at the bottom and are braced with crossed rods.
A windmill with patched sailsA tapering tower and four sails in an X. Each sail is a ladder of bars, with a square of cloth missing.
An observatory dome with its slit openA half sphere on a low round wall. A dark slot runs from the rim to the top, with a telescope inside.
How it works
Every building starts as a box with a lid. These 80 house drawing ideas say what to add to the box: a porch roof, a tower room, stilts, a row of awnings.
Read the full guide
From a box to a house
Draw the front wall as a rectangle and the roof as a triangle on top. A door about a third of the wall's height sets the scale for everything else. Houses holds 26, and the easy ones stop there: a house of rectangles and one triangle, a snowed-in cabin, a porch with a swing seat.
Castle drawing ideas and city drawing ideas
A castle is towers joined by walls, so start with cylinders and boxes and notch the tops. Castles holds 16. A city is the same boxes overlapped: draw the nearest building first and tuck the rest behind it. Streets and cities holds 19.
Rule the verticals and draw the rest freehand. Straight walls with wobbly windows look lived in.
Add one small thing for scale: a door, a bicycle, a cat on a step.
Questions and answers
What is an easy house to draw?
An A-frame cabin is one big triangle, a doghouse built to match the house behind it is a box and a roof, and three houses of the same shape differ only in their windows.
Are there building drawing ideas that are not houses?
Other buildings holds 19: a barn with a hayloft door, a windmill with patched sails, a train station with an arched glass roof, a factory with a sawtooth roof. Each hint names the one shape that identifies it.
Do I need to know perspective first?
No. Most easy and medium ideas are drawn flat from the front. For streets that run away from you, perspective drawing ideas has exercises with one and two vanishing points.