How to Draw a Castle

Although today castles are only memories of the past, at the time they were built, they proved to be a sign of wealth and protection against enemies. Castles were created in the 9th century following the fall of the Carolingian Empire (established by Pepin the Short, father of Charlemagne). Indeed, after this event, territories were divided and then reclaimed by various nobles and princes. To demonstrate their power and especially to protect their land, nobles built castles on their territories.

The principle of a fortified castle is quite simple and is governed by social rank. The poor and peasants lived outside of the fortified castles. Next, there was a first row of walls and towers, inside of which there were some lands with mostly soldiers for security. Inside, there was another row of walls and towers enclosing the inner courtyard. The wealthiest residents lived in this courtyard. And in the inner courtyard was the noble's residence, which housed the noble himself as well as his relatives.

The castles were usually surrounded by deep water to prevent the enemy from scaling the walls using ladders or other methods.

The only access to the castle was generally over a drawbridge, but there were strongholds with a simple bridge, which had a smaller and more solid door.

Now that you know enough about castles, we can start drawing one!

To simplify things, we will draw it from the front, but just know that you can easily draw it in perspective, with the basic shape being a square.

DRAWING THE BASE OF A STRONG CASTLE

To start, you're going to divide your paper into 4. Draw a vertical line in the middle of your paper to divide it into two equal parts. Then, draw a horizontal line at the ground level to mark the boundary between the water and the castle.

Draw another horizontal line higher for the height of your castle and another at 1/3. Then draw several vertical lines to divide your castle into 6 parts: 2 towers, 2 parapets, and the entrance, which is divided into 2 by our middle line.

You will now draw the bridge. We are going to create a basic bridge without a drawbridge. Since we are facing the castle and the bridge is coming towards us, we need to draw it in perspective, so your lines will be more spaced out at the bottom of the sheet to give the impression of it coming closer.

Now that your foundations are laid and accurate, you can start shaping your castle.

ADDING DETAILS TO THE CASTLE

Draw the ramparts of your castle.

Erase any unnecessary lines and add towers in the background.

Now draw the windows and doors.

Add details such as indentations and reliefs to dress up your castle.

Draw the bottom of the castle with a slight curve and add two cubes in perspective on each side of the bridge. This will form the base of the bridge's reinforcement, which will be detailed later. To learn more about perspective, I invite you to read our article on drawing in perspective available on our blog ;)

Draw the wooden planks on the deck by making them less and less spaced apart as they approach the bottom of your drawing to add depth. If you want to learn more about how to add depth effects to your drawings, don't hesitate to take a look at the article on our blog that talks about it!

Now that your draft is finished, you can go over it neatly. Remember to leave the top of the cubes on each side of the bridge empty.

Add grass to the cubes as well as lines in the water to create the illusion of small vibrations in the water. Your castle is now complete! If you want, you can stop here or continue to the next step, which is to add texture to your drawing.

Our castle is all nice and clean, but lacking in life. To make it a bit more realistic and interesting, we are going to add shadows, highlights, and textures. To start, draw bricks all over the surface of your castle. Be careful, if they are too big, it won’t look realistic, and if they are too small, the castle will look fragile. I added about sixty on the height of one tower.

ADDING COLOR TO THE CASTLE DRAWING

Once you've drawn your bricks, add shadows to the sides of the different sections, as well as on the windows and door. Then add highlights to the middle of the sections to give them depth.

Color the water with a medium shade, and add highlights with a lighter shade.

Do the same with the bridge. Note that the dark color should be at the bottom and you should lighten it as you go down toward the edge of the paper. Arranging the colors this way gives the impression of depth and therefore adds relief to the drawing.

Now, redraw the wooden slats on the deck and add some shades of hues on the bridge railings.

Add a sky with a light hue and clouds with an almost white shade.

Your drawing is finished!

If you want to make a drawing that is at least somewhat realistic and rather lively, don't forget to add shadows and highlights. Even just a little bit will make a big difference. You will go from a flat drawing to a drawing full of life and with depth.

Illustrator and writer: Coralie