How to draw a modern city. Cityscape in watercolor step by step

  • 16.06.2019

The city is where you might live. The city has many streets, houses, trees and people. There are small cities on Earth, and there are large cities - megacities - with a population of several million people. City dwellers get used to the noise of the streets, to the horns of cars, to the bustle and crowds on the streets. You may have tried to draw city streets and houses. Let's learn how to correctly draw a quiet city street in pencil step by step using the rules of perspective and proportions in the drawing.

Stage 1. We will draw a piece of a city street that goes away from us into the distance. That is, in the foreground we will have large objects; as we move away from our eyes, the size of all elements will decrease. The rules of perspective in the drawing are used here. We draw two lines in the middle, they are parallel to each other. On the right we show two lines diverging in perspective. On the left is a line at the bottom and two lines forming an angle at the top.


Stage 2. Let's start drawing the walls of the houses. Ahead of us we draw two straight lines running parallel to each other. One is higher, the other is lower. From the high line we move the line to the side. This will be the wall of the building located in front of us. On the right we raise the wall and draw a door.

Stage 3. Now let's draw the roofs of the houses. On the left we make them pointed, since this house is visible to us from the side. On the right too. But the roof of the front house is positioned differently.

Stage 4. Now we will draw additional features under the roof of the left house. Below we show the line of the sidewalk. From it we build straight entry lines. On the right we draw wavy lines of the sidewalk, going forward and turning to the side.

Stage 5. Let's continue drawing the door in the left house. And near the right house, in a small protrusion of the sidewalk, we draw a spreading tree that decorates this street.

Stage 6. The entrance to the left house is a door with a small canopy. Let's draw a window under the canopy. Next to the sidewalk near this house we show elements - dining tables and chairs. Let's draw a vase with flowers on the table. There is a cafe on the lower floor of the left building. And in the right house we will complete the elements on the front door.

Stage 7. We will show a trash can near the table. There is a hanging lamp above the entrance. It's not far away Street light. On the right house we draw pipes on the roof.

Stage 8. Now we draw windows in all three houses. Please note that they are everywhere different types. Rectangular, square, arched. There are a lot of windows, especially in the house in the middle of the picture.

Stage 9. Now we erase all the sketches, leaving nothing unnecessary. This is what your drawing should look like in black and white. You can, of course, make it brighter and color it. You will get a cityscape. Now you can, looking from the window of your apartment, also draw your city street if you live in the city. Do not forget the rule that objects in the foreground are larger, those in the background are smaller, and all lines must go into perspective.


    Easiest draw a city of the future using special step-by-step schemes drawing.

    A version of photo diagrams showing how to do this without difficulty is shown below.

    Using this diagram, you can easily draw a city of the future together with your child.

    For this we need a sheet of white or slightly tinted drawing paper, an M or TM pencil, and an eraser.

    To ensure straight lines are clear, you can use a ruler.

    So, let's start by drawing vertical rectangles of different sizes as a basis for drawing buildings in the foreground.

    Add rectangular buildings located in the background and draw a tower on one of the skyscrapers.

    The next stage is to draw architectural details and window openings.

    The drawing of the city of the future is ready.

    Now it can be left as a graphic composition or colored with pencils or paints.

    Previous master class on drawing a city of the future was quite simple, and the drawing was two-dimensional.

    The next master class can be completed by a more experienced draftsman who has skills in constructing perspective and working with light and shadow, as well as a steady hand and confident shading with a simple pencil.

    The operating principles remain the same.

    Let's start by outlining the outlines of all buildings with light lines, then we will proceed to the sequential development of each element of the drawing separately.

    For those who draw right hand, it is convenient to do this from left to right, but for left-handed people, on the contrary, it is more convenient to start drawing from right to left.

    At the last stage, we shade the shadow parts of the drawing with shading, and, if desired, drawing city of the future You can continue to draw in color, using paints or graphic materials.

    Each person has his own idea about City of the future. But the city of a future child may be radically different from the city of a future adult. Here, the main thing is not to force anything on the child, let him fantasize freely. Because my future city looks something like this:

    And so does the child :)

    What every city has, of course, is home. Invite your child to come up with unusual shape houses, with an interesting roof, windows, porch. Maybe in the future people will no longer walk on the ground, but will land directly on the roof? Then we’ll draw the porch or entrance exactly there. Or maybe people will fly directly into the windows in their personal vehicles?

Rivers, lakes and forests are a pleasure. However, now we will learn how to draw a city. Let's take a closer look step by step process drawing. So let's get started!

Necessary materials:

  • colored pencils of yellow, brown, green tones;
  • simple pencils;
  • ruler;
  • eraser;
  • sheet of white paper.

Drawing steps:

1. We begin to develop the city, for this, first of all, we need high-rise buildings. First, let's place two such buildings. The height and width may differ from each other. To make further drawing easier, first of all we draw a horizontal line on which all the buildings in the city will be placed.


2. Let’s draw one more building on the left and right sides. In this picture there is one building that is taller than all of them; let’s draw a semicircle just above its top. But on a small building located on the left side, we will draw a pitched roof.


3. Let’s add some skyscrapers in the background. The building on the right side has interesting view top part. Next, you should use your imagination and come up with your own building design. We will draw exactly these tops of the building. Let our city become the metropolis of the future!


4. Let's add a few more buildings and draw the top of one of them, which will house a television antenna or the office of one of the TV channels.


5. Now let's move on to a detailed drawing of the entire drawing. We will add windows to each building. Every building will have windows different shapes. Detailing the television tower. Let's add trees and other vegetation to the drawing. If you wish, you can, shops, people who will be walking or rushing to work, etc.


6. For the brightness and saturation of our drawing, we use a simple pencil marked B8 or B9. These pencils are soft and can create dark lines. We outline the entire drawing.


7. Use a brown pencil to color the tree trunks. But let's start greening the trees with light green.


8. Darken the trees and bushes with a dark green pencil.


9. We will decorate the windows with blue or light blue pencil.


10. Finally, color the buildings with yellow and brown pencils.


So the drawing of a modern city is ready!



A few simple rules, the simplest materials and a little inspiration - and even a beginner can create from scratch finished painting. The book “The Great Creative Challenge” is a guide to the world visual arts and a guide to uncover creative potential. We publish step-by-step master class on drawing a city landscape.

Cities are filled with people, buildings, cars and public transport. Each of them, in its diversity and dissimilarity from others, gives the artist a variety of subjects.

A typical cityscape is a panorama. To work on such a painting, you need to find a place that offers a wide view. It is better if it is located on a hill so that a large space opens up to the eye. Often a good landscape can be found near a river, where buildings usually do not block the view and you can look around a large area.

Traditionally, recognizable objects, famous buildings, and other objects are often included in the depiction of a cityscape. distinctive features terrain. For example, Tower Bridge in London is chosen for this article. However, the face of a city is not necessarily a souvenir postcard for tourists. You might want to portray him in a less traditional or unusual style. You can get an interesting result by getting rid of conventions and choosing a look that is unattractive at first glance, which conveys the spirit of the city and tells about the daily life of its inhabitants.

Tower Bridge at dusk

Approximate completion time: 2–3 days, including drying time.

Material: oil paint.

Surface: canvas coated with white primer, size approximately A2.

You will need: pencil; small, medium and large round brushes with hard bristles; a very small pointed round brush with soft bristles; oil thinner in a resealable container; rag; oil palette; oil paints: ultramarine, blue ceruleum, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, white; optional: tracing paper, water-based marker, easel.

Objective of the lesson: learn to convey the illusion of depth in space and work with details in a panoramic landscape.

1. Preparing the canvas and drawing outlines

Prepare your palette by squeezing paint onto it in the order shown above:

from ultramarine to white, from left to right. Using a large brush, add to each

oil paint color thinner is sufficient to produce transparent colors. Make a wash of several colors over the entire surface of the white canvas. Leave overnight to dry.

Using a pencil over the oil wash, draw the outlines of all the main objects (the bridge, the dark mass in the foreground) and the silhouettes of the buildings on the horizon. To make things easier, I placed a piece of tracing paper on top of the original photo, drew a grid on it, and traced the outlines with a marker. I then drew a grid of similar proportions on the canvas and, cell by cell, copied the outlines of the original image. If you don't have tracing paper, draw the outlines by eye.

2. Performing underpainting

Start applying primary colors to objects. Ignore minor inaccuracies for now. Notice that the bridge is clearly darker of blue color, than the background around it, and the foreground is the darkest area of ​​the image.

3. Clarifying the shape of objects

Start refining the shape of the objects in the underpainting. Using a small brush, work in the unpainted borders between the colors. Write general shape reflections on the surface of the water, including the silhouette of the bridge, and sample forms horizontal light highlights.


4. Elaboration of the sky and outlines against its background

I thought the sky would look better if it was changed a little. Using a medium brush, dipped in thinner, I lightly blurred the paint on the canvas and added a light cloud to the right. Then I added details to the building silhouettes

against the sky and refined the shape of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral using the thinnest pointed brush. Using the same brush and dark blue paint, I painted silhouettes of cranes in the background, to the left and right of the bridge.

5. Working out surface details

Mix a light blue tint and paint in the illuminated details of the bridge using a thin brush, keeping in mind their design. At this stage, you can add lanterns in the background and their reflection on the surface of the water, depicting them using dots and lines of white, white with a tint, or red.

6. Final touches

Work through small parts, add thin stripes of highlights to the bridge towers. Place tiny dots of light wherever you see light sources. Finally, add the chimney pipes and, very thin lines, silhouettes of cranes in the foreground.

Drawing a city is not an easy task at all. This requires certain skills and craftsmanship. Those who want to create such a picture should read step by step instructions, given below.

In order to get a panoramic image with lots of detail, you need to prepare for the fact that nothing will work out perfectly right away. In any town, even a small one, there are streets, trees, and houses. How can we manage without people? It shouldn't look deserted. For those who do not know how to draw a person, there is another way out. You can depict them in the distance. Or limit yourself to barely noticeable silhouettes in raindrops. The city is different. It cannot be fully captured in the drawing. A budding artist should choose one street, preferably with the main attraction. To make the picture live, you need to add cars to the roadway. The city should look different depending on the time of year. Good artist


can bring a picture to life. Make it so that the audience will feel the horns of cars, the cries of people, and the way the snow falls or the wind blows. What will you need? To create a masterpiece, you just need to stock up with simple pencils


of different thicknesses, with an elastic band and a ruler. Decide what is best to draw. Some separate segment, part of a street, a house.


The foreground will fill with larger objects. In the background there are small ones, not so significant. The drawing will visually distance objects that are located a little further down the street. It is also recommended to take into account the rules for creating perspective. To mark in the drawing where and what will be located, you should draw lines. It is advisable to make them the size that will correspond to the reduced drawing. There may be several trees on the street. And if this is a metropolis, which is even easier to draw, then trees will replace tall skyscrapers and smaller houses. Houses are marked on a piece of paper. There is no need to immediately draw thick lines, which will be difficult to erase later. Parallel lines connect to form houses. In every house, windows are drawn using a ruler. All buildings must be drawn in detail. Mistakes are allowed because they can be erased. In order for the drawing to acquire a certain volume, panels, back walls, and shadows are drawn in buildings. Having calculated exact location


Once the houses are finished, you can move on to the green spaces. A ruler certainly won’t help in drawing a tree or bush, except for an approximate comparison of parameters. Depending on the level of knowledge of the artist himself, the tree will either be drawn in a complex manner, with bark, a hollow, leaves on the branches, or it will remain poorly drawn. Most easy way– draw two parallel lines that end in a hemisphere. The bushes are as close as possible to houses or borders, they look like wavy clouds.


The city consists of shadows and penumbras. Part of it will be much darker than the one shown in front. An aspiring artist can choose two paths to follow:
  • The path of least resistance is to choose a photo on the Internet, preferably black and white, and try to redraw everything that the eye sees. You don't have to start with a photograph. You can also find a picture in the same black and white primitive style. Each time the redrawn landscape will turn out better, smoother, and more professional.
  • The second option is to feel like a real artist, and also to arouse the interest of others in your art by going outside. First, the painter decides on the place that he will depict in the picture. Then he takes a folding chair or just a rug, sits on the nearest bench and takes out a sheet of paper with pencils, erasers, and a ruler.
  • Having outlined the correct location of objects on the street, the artist begins work.


Don't stop there. A purposeful person who wants to learn how to draw understands that this is a very long process. One tree can take hours, days, or even weeks to draw.