How to Draw Cityscapes (Easy)
Learning how to draw an easy cityscape is a lot of fun. And there are a plenty of options for including them in your work. These whimsical buildings are great for urban sketchers, aspiring hobby artists, or doodle enthusiasts.
Whether you’re into graffiti drawing, artist trading cards, or drawing just for fun. These types of skyline drawings will come in handy. And you can do so many different things with them.
Even though they’re quite simplistic, there’s a world of opportunities when drawing these.
Today you’ll learn how to make 2D and 3D variations of cityscapes. And you’ll see some examples of how to include it in your artwork.
What is a Cityscape in Art?
Simply put, it’s an artistic representation of an urban landscape. It can be realistic, stylized, or even abstract. You’re the artist and you’re free to draw your cityscape in whatever way you feel moved to create it.
If you’re drawing a city with an easily recognizable building you should try to include that in your cityscape drawing. There are so many interesting opportunities for this type of artwork.
And they are quick and easy to make which means you can do a variety of different drawings. Art and drawing are skills that are learned. So the more you practice the better you will get.
Let’s grab our supplies and get ready to have some fun learning how to make cityscape drawings.
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Art Supplies
- Thin black marker
- Paper or cardstock
- Markers
- Pencil
- Click Eraser, Pink Pearl Eraser
- White Gelly Roll pen
City Skyline Tutorial (Silhouette)
Let’s begin today by looking at how to do a city skyline silhouette drawing. For the purpose of this tutorial, skyline and cityscape mean the same thing.
Drawing a skyline using silhouettes is probably the easiest way to make one of these drawings. We’ll look at some more difficult drawings later in this tutorial.
Begin by drawing a straight line across your paper. This will represent your horizon line.
Starting at the far edge of your paper, draw several different sized rectangles.
Continue working your way across the paper. Be sure to draw your buildings different sizes. This will make your drawing more interesting to look at.
Fill your skyline silhouette in with a black marker.
Add in some towers and smokestacks to the top of some of your buildings.
A white Gelly Roll pen can be used to add highlights.
You can add windows to all or some of your buildings. I like to make them varied and slightly random, but you can make your windows any way you like. You could also use yellow, or another color, for your windows.
From here there are still lots of options. You could add some color for the sky. Or you could add some additional layers in the distance.
See the skyline examples at the bottom of this post for some ideas that can be applied to your own drawings.
3D Cityscape Drawing (Freehand Two Point Perspective)
Now that you know the basic concepts involved in drawing a skyline or cityscape, let’s look at how to make a cityscape using 2 point perspective to make it three dimensional.
Again, start with a horizon line, or draw them right on the bottom edge of your paper. Then draw a short vertical line. This line will be the front corner of your building. The longer you draw this line, the taller your building will be.
When making a city drawing using two point perspective, the viewers eye will go to the corner of the buildings. Therefore, you’ll be looking at two sides of each building.
These lines can be straight, or you can curve them to give your buildings a bit more style.
Next draw two lines at the top that angle down. It should look like an arrow.
Keep these lines consistent with your first line as far as being straight or curved.
Draw both sides of your first building going from the top where the arrow is, to the bottom of your paper.
For your next building follow that same process, but make sure you draw your top line so it goes past your first building. You can do this by drawing your lines longer.
The length of the top lines will determine how long the side of your building is.
Overlapping City Skyline Drawing (2 Point Perspective)
Now draw the lines going from the top (arrow) of your building, down to the edge of your paper or until it reaches the other building.
Keep in mind that this is a two point perspective cityscape drawing so you’ll see two sides of each building, unless it’s blocked by the building in front of it.
For the next building, leave a bit of space on your paper. This will help create depth in your drawing by overlapping the buildings.
Draw your next building so it’s behind the ones to the left and right of it.
Notice how the buildings are different sizes. You’ll want to vary your buildings as well. This will create depth in your drawing and is a way to use space in your artwork. Learning to use space in art is one of the fundamental art skills.
Continue following the same steps to add more buildings to your cityscape drawing.
If you want to add extra details or windows, be sure to follow the same angle as your buildings.
How to Make a Easy Cityscape Drawing with Markers
Learning how to make a cityscape drawing with markers is really easy. And there’s only a few things you need to keep in mind when using them.
First, if you want to be able to blend your colors together you need to use alcohol based markers. Bic, Sharpie, and Copic for example. As well as many others.
Second, you need to work while the colors are still wet or they won’t mix together. This isn’t a big deal. Just make sure you work on a section at a time.
Third, you need to use colors that are similar to each other if you want to create a smooth transition of color. If your markers are too different they will leave a harder edge.
Begin by filling in your building with your lightest colors In this example that’s yellow and lime green. You can follow this process with any color scheme that you choose.
Next, add in your two darkest colors. For this example that’s green and a darker green.
Fill in the rest of your cityscape drawing using the same colors. Blend your markers for a smooth gradation of color.
Follow the same steps to add color to your sky. You can use whatever colors you think will look good.
Finish your drawing by using a white Gelly Roll pen to add some windows and stars.
Cityscape Drawings Challenge for Beginners
If you want to get good at drawing cityscapes or anything else, the best thing to do is a 7 day drawing challenge. You’ll be amazed by how quickly you can improve your drawing skills. There are many other benefits as well.
Below are some examples of cityscape drawings done with markers. These were all done on artist trading cards (ATCs). If you want to learn more about them, check out this tutorial.
There are a lot of different ways you can make your cityscape drawings. Do a challenge and see how many different ideas you can come up with. You’ll develop your style in the process, and you might even have some fun!
Grab your FREE Guide to Better Art in 7 Days
Super Easy Cityscape Drawings
Now that you know how to draw your own cityscapes and skylines, how are you going to use them in your artwork? Here’s another example of a cityscape and how to use them in your graffiti art, as seen in How to Draw Stylized Letters.
This is a simple way to add a city skyline to your drawings. It’s easy, yet very well suited for this type of artwork. How many different ways can you think of to add a skyline or cityscape to your drawings? Let me know your ideas in the comments.
