How to draw a city - a free city drawing guide

Choose whether your paper will be landscape or portrait and place it flat on your table.

Place your paper in landscape orientation on a flat table so you have lots of space for a city.

Lightly draw a straight horizon line about one-third from the top of the paper.

Use your pencil and ruler to draw a light straight horizon line across the page.

Mark one small vanishing point on the horizon with a dot where your streets will meet.

Pick one point on the horizon and mark it lightly as your vanishing point.

Draw several faint straight guideline rays from the vanishing point toward the bottom edge of the paper using your ruler.

Use your ruler to draw two straight lines from the vanishing point toward the bottom to make the main street edges.

Draw two tapered sidewalk edges using the guidelines so they converge toward the vanishing point.

Sketch simple rectangles and squares along the street edges to block in the front row of buildings.

Draw taller rectangles and triangle rooftops behind the front row to create the distant skyline.

Sketch rectangle bases for buildings along each sidewalk edge using the perspective guidelines.

Add building heights and rooftop lines that follow the perspective lines so nearer buildings look taller.

Add windows to the buildings by drawing repeated small rectangles or squares that get smaller toward the vanishing point.

Draw doors at the base of the front buildings using rectangles that line up with the street level.

Draw windows and doors on the buildings, making shapes smaller as they get closer to the vanishing point.

Add rooftop details like antennas chimneys or pointed roofs using small simple shapes on top of buildings.

Add trees and streetlamps along the sidewalks using simple trunks and round or oval tops scaled to perspective.

Draw small people at different distances and sizes so distant people look tiny and nearby people look larger.

Sketch a park area by drawing an open shape then add trees as circles on sticks and a bench as a small rectangle.

Draw street details like lamp posts crosswalk lines and a few simple car shapes along the street edges.

Erase extra construction and guideline marks gently with your eraser.

Erase extra construction lines and any stray marks so your city looks clean.

Trace the main outlines of buildings streets trees and people with markers to make them stand out.

Color your buildings streets trees and sky with markers or colored pencils keeping darker colors closer and lighter colors farther away.

Trace your final lines with a black pen then wait for the ink to dry before erasing any remaining pencil.

Add little details like shop signs window reflections crosswalks and texture lines to make your city feel alive.

Add shading with your pencil and blend with a tissue to make shadows darker near the front and lighter toward the horizon.

Color your cityscape using colored pencils markers or crayons and then share your finished creation on DIY.org

Take a photo of your finished city and share your creation on DIY.org.