How to Draw a Bulding

Today we will tell you how to draw a building. Architectural structures are always quite difficult drawing lessons. In each case, you need to be excellent at drawing straight lines and maintaining correct proportions. Inaccuracy of symmetry even in a small area can completely distort the entire drawing.

There are also several aspects that you should know before drawing a 3D object. Areas of the object that are close to us should be darker and more contrasting.

Additionally, closer parts of the object appear much larger. Everything distant from us is drawn proportionally small. These techniques are covered in our article on aerial perspective – be sure you are familiar with this before drawing the building.

You can also use linear perspective techniques when drawing this building and other three-dimensional objects. We have also created a special guide on linear perspective for a more in-depth study.

How to make your final drawing even more voluminous and realistic? Of course, with the help of shadows and light. Due to the fact that we are drawing a three-dimensional real object, we need to draw shadows on the surface on which it is located. Also, some shadows on the walls of the building will help create a lively picture. You can expand and refresh your knowledge of shadow drawing with our basic guide on light and shadow for artists.

So let’s start this lesson to learn how to draw a building. We have tried to adapt these steps to the most basic level of artists.

Step 1

First, draw some simple straight lines like in our example. It should look like a long, elongated parallelogram. This is the basic and most important step, try to draw it as straight as possible. Ideally, do not use aids such as a ruler.

Step 2

Then, add another smaller shape to the top of the drawing. The vertical lines of the figures should not coincide. In this case, the horizontal lines must be parallel.

Step 3

So, we continued the lesson about how to draw a building. Draw a third shape on top of the parallelogram from the previous step. Create the effect of a uniform decrease towards the top. Be very strict about the parallelism of the horizontal lines, this is very important for depicting parts of the building.

Step 4

This is another part of our building. Here we see even smaller sizes compared to the block from the previous step. At the very top, there is a small trapezoid. It should look as if the entire structure is tapering upward step by step. Please note that this part is the shortest of all that we have drawn.

Step 5

And now there will be a rather interesting step. Here we will add a small cylinder that occupies the highest position in the entire structure. The small dimensions of the cylinder should emphasize the volume and large dimensions of the remaining parts.

Step 6

Evaluate all previous steps. Check that all lines are correct and parallel. It should look like a beautiful building with a few steps up. If everything is ok, then add lines that will create frames like in our example.

Step 7

If we look at a skyscraper from afar, we see the vertical lines of the windows best. Therefore, in this step, we only draw vertical lines inside the first two shapes. Don’t place these lines too tightly.

Step 8

Determine which side of the building has the most light. Place the shadows on the other side of the building. The shadows look like oblique shading that is most noticeable near the edge.
Be sure to draw shadows on the surface of the ground. Without this detail, the building will look like it is floating in the air.

Step 9

So, this is the last step of the lesson about how to draw a building. As a result, you can get something like this. Use this step-by-step method to draw buildings of other shapes. Experiment with shadows.

As we already said, drawing a building is not the easiest thing. If your result is not at all similar to what you wanted to see, try to find the step where you made an inaccuracy and correct it. The last steps are very easy to fix. The first steps of correction are quite difficult.

You can always draw other objects with straight lines to practice your skills – for example, the interior of a room.

By the way, you can draw many other buildings using our lesson. We intentionally kept the details minimal so that you can change the shape of the spire or add various additional buildings, flags or other details.

Drawing buildings is a very important skill that will help you, for example, if you want to create an urban style comic. You’ve probably seen Spider-Man flying between the skyscrapers of New York or how Batman sits in ambush on the roof of a gloomy Gotham skyscraper.

We are looking forward to your feedback. Let us know what you found most difficult about this drawing guide. We will take this into account and our next tutorials will be even better. See you again on the pages of our website!