How to draw

How to Draw an Airplane

Confident (level 4 of 5)
20 min
10 steps
Ages 7–12 (a guide, not a rule)

Start Drawing Draw on Screen Print

Draw on paper: Paper, Pencil. Optional: Eraser, Ruler, Blue, gray and light blue crayons, colored pencils or markers.

A passenger plane is a long tube with wings. Here it flies past you, so the near wing sweeps down toward you and looks big, while the far wing points away and looks shorter. You will draw the parts in front first and stop the lines behind them, then line up the windows with equal gaps.

Rather color it? Print the airplane coloring page.

Step by step

New lines: purple, thick and glowing
Lines you already drew: gray
Guides: dashed blue, draw them lightly
Erase: dotted pink with an eraser

Step 1 of 10 Draw a long, thin light oval across the middle of your paper for the body. It is about eight times as long as it is tall.
Step 2 of 10 Draw the top of the body along the oval in one long straight line, then curve around the front for the round nose and stop under it.
Step 3 of 10 Draw the tail: a tall fin on top at the back, slanting backward, and a small tail wing that points down and back toward you.
Step 4 of 10 Draw the engine below the middle of the body: a short tube with an oval opening at the front. Draw it before the wing because it is in front.
Step 5 of 10 Draw the near wing: from the bottom of the body it sweeps down and back toward you. Its front edge stops where it meets the engine.
Step 6 of 10 Draw the bottom of the body: from the nose back to the wing, then from behind the wing to the tail. Stop at the wing and the tail wing; they are in front.
Step 7 of 10 Draw the far wing above the body, pointing up and back. It is as big as the near wing but looks shorter because it points away. Start it at the top line.
Step 8 of 10 Draw the cockpit window at the nose and two doors. Then draw a row of small round windows along a straight line, with equal gaps between them.
Step 9 of 10 Erase the light oval.
Step 10 of 10 Finish with details: a dark fan inside the engine, a flap line along the back of the near wing, and short shading lines along the bottom of the body.

A white passenger airplane with a blue stripe and a blue tail fin flying to the right, with a gray near wing and engine, a smaller far wing and a row of round windows.

You did it!

Your drawing does not have to look like this one. Every artist draws a little differently.

Color it on screen Print a practice sheet

Tips for this drawing

Helpful hints

Use a ruler or a long, slow stroke for the top of the body: it is one straight line.
Mark the window spots with dots first, one finger apart, then draw the circles.
Both wings sweep back the same way. Check that their front edges lean in the same direction.

Common mistakes

The far wing is as long as the near wing and the plane looks flat. Make the far wing shorter: it points away from you, so you see less of it.
The body's bottom line runs across the wing. The near wing is in front of the body. Stop the bottom line where it touches the wing and start again behind it.
The windows wander up and down. Draw a light straight line first and set every window on it.

Make it simpler

Draw the long body with a round nose, a tail fin, one big wing and a row of windows. Leave out the far wing, the engine and the shading.

Proportion

The body of a passenger plane is very long: about eight times as long as it is tall. The near wing reaches down about twice the body's height.

Overlap

The engine is in front of the near wing, the near wing is in front of the body, and the far wing is behind the body. Each line behind a part stops at its edge.

Foreshortening

A part that points away from you looks shorter. Both wings are the same size, but the far wing is drawn shorter because it points away.

Light and shadow

The body is round like a tube and the light comes from above, so its underside is in shadow. A row of short lines along the bottom makes it look round.