How to Draw a House
Present in many settings, the house is a key element in all stories and illustrations. In this step-by-step tutorial, we will see how to draw it well and integrate it into a setting.
THE VIEWS OF THE DRAWING
In order to draw a house, we must first choose the perspective of the drawing and stick to it! Depending on the desired perspective, we will then define the horizon line and vanishing points. These vanishing points will be the reference points to be followed for each new element in the drawing.
FRONT VIEW:
The front view is quite simple, as the vertical and horizontal edges of the house's structure do not have a vanishing point. Vertical lines are simply parallel to each other, and the same goes for horizontal lines. It’s the easiest viewpoint but it only shows one side of the house, and does not convey its three-dimensionality.
SIDE VIEW:
For a 3/4 view, there will be two vanishing points: one on the right and one on the left, both meeting on the horizon line. These vanishing points will help us draw the house in perspective, and thus give the illusion of depth to our volumes. Lines that are actually parallel to each other (windows, doors...) now converge on the vanishing points.
THE POSITIONING OF THE SPECTATOR:
The horizon line is defined according to the eye of the observer. For a frontal view, we will draw the horizon line in the centre of the sheet.
For a view from below, as if we were squatting on the ground and looking upwards, the horizon line will be at the bottom of the drawing. For a bird's eye view of our house, as if we were viewing it from above, the horizon line will be at the top of the drawing.
There is a significant difference between drawing a house and a building. In our case, we might not define a vanishing point that goes towards the sky because the sense of height we have when looking at a building is less when looking at a house (see the comparison of the photos above). To exaggerate, if we look at a skyscraper from the ground, we perceive the distortion of the vertical edges, which is not the case when looking at a one-storey house.
Attention!
When drawing based on a photograph, one can usually see in the image (depending on the camera settings) a clear distortion of the edges because the camera's lens is different from our eye's: the perspective seems enhanced, even for a house, and sometimes, lines that are supposed to be straight are curved. If you are drawing based on a reference photo, choose it carefully in order to have as little distortion as possible, like the photo above on the left.
For this tutorial, I will choose the view that seems most interesting to me; the ¾ view.
DRAWING A HOUSE STEP BY STEP
Let's start by placing the horizon line just a little below the middle of the sheet. It is represented by a light blue straight line:
So we define our two vanishing points, one on the left and one on the right (and as far away from each other as possible to have more space to clearly see the sides of the house). These are the two small red lines.
The pink vertical line represents the central edge of the house, the corner closest to our eye; it divides the two faces that we will see.
The right side will have an entrance door and a window, the left side windows on the ground and 1st floor. We will start with the structural elements, i.e. doors and windows, chimneys... everything that requires vanishing points.
I then draw two more pink vertical lines that will be the left and right outlines of the house.
The orange lines meet the left vanishing point, while the green lines meet the one on the right. (Any normally horizontal lines will end at one of these vanishing points).
Thus, the ground floor of the house is starting to take shape.
THE ROOF OF THE HOUSE
I draw the shape of the ground floor in black. Then, I deal with the roof.
There are different types: mansard roofs, shed roofs, flat roofs or even asymmetrical... I choose the most classic form: an inverted V-gable roof.
When drawing in perspective and looking for the centre of a face - to position windows or other elements - simply draw the diagonals of the face and draw the vertical line from the central point found (or starting from the central point found, to a vanishing point, if one has been defined). This process can be repeated to also find the centre of the two new faces.
Then, I choose a height by drawing from my vanishing point up to the orange vertical line. The intersection point is the peak of my roof, where the arrow points.
I draw the roof wider than the base of my house, thinking that its purpose is to protect the walls so that water runs off to the ground or into a gutter, and not onto the walls. Again, the edges follow the vanishing point to the right.
The orange line helps us see where the lower part of the roof should stop.
For the roof details, I want to draw two chimneys and a window a little more complex than those on the walls of the house.
The dark blue lines are the markers following the direction of the roof slope.
The green lines are the reference points of the right vanishing point, for all the right faces of the elements. On this right face, I create several small windows using the process applied above (the one that helped us find the top of the roof), to be able to draw each window at equal distance and in perspective.
Then, I add details, edges... have fun with the architectural style you prefer!
The important thing is simply to follow the vanishing points to have a correct structure.
The orange line, it is the reference point for the left faces of each element, converging to the left vanishing point.
Finally,the pink vertical lines are parallel to my central edge.
Once the markers are removed, things become clearer!
I have just finished detailing the roof with typical elements: roof tiles, small skylights, a gutter through which roof water flows...
DRAWING THE RIGHT FACE
Now I deal with the right side of the house, listing in advance the elements I want to place there: an entrance door, a small terrace or porch and a large window. For this purpose I use the right-hand vanishing point with the green lines.
I divide the window diagonally, using the same method as above to place 4 small panes.
I draw the door in a niche and begin to divide the rectangles of the window.
I finish the drawing of this side with the outline of the windows, their reflections, and some decorations near the entrance.
DRAWING THE LEFT FACADE OF THE HOUSE
Using the left vanishing point, I define the bases of the windows on this side. I place two on the ground floor, and one on the first floor, which will also have a small balcony that we will draw later.
With the right vanishing point, I draw the recesses of the windows and choose to have a slightly thick wall, hence the width of their recesses. With the help of the left vanishing point, I draw the horizontal lines of the windows. You can choose different styles, bay windows, small panes...
I can then erase my marks and move to the balcony. Quickly zoom in on the first floor:
When all my elements requiring perspective are finished, I can add the final details and textures to the house! Small dots on the walls to suggest plaster, and a stripe at the bottom of the house, as if the base was painted.
We can add flowers to the window ledges, vegetation, other houses nearby, characters, etc.
For my part, I add bushes in front of the house, next to the flower pots at the entrance.
COLOURING
I quickly add some colour: I position the house with the trees and a large green area around it. I delete the base at the bottom left of the house to create a sort of basement: it must appear lower than the ground level of the drawing (here, lower than the entrance porch or the grass on the ground).
A bit of smoke comes out of the chimney, and the colour of the sky is reflected on the windows for more realism.
I also add some tall herbs in the foreground.
Note:
The choice of initially spacing the vanishing points allowed me to have two particularly visible sides for this house. The closer you choose a vanishing point to the central vertical axis, the less visible the side will be.
Finally, I decide the direction of the light in my scene: it comes from the top right of my drawing. A slight shadow on the left side of the house improves the three-dimensional impression of the drawing, not to mention the sides of the fireplace and the windows, also in shadow, the door... and that's it!
Illustrator and writer: Vincyane