How to draw
How to Draw a Bedroom in One-Point Perspective
- Challenge (level 5 of 5)
- 45 min
- 18 steps
- Ages 10–14 (a guide, not a rule)
Draw on paper: Paper, Pencil, Eraser, Ruler. Optional: Colored pencils for the walls, bed and wood.
Draw it on the screen
A room in one-point perspective is a box you look into. The back wall faces you, so it is a plain rectangle; the floor, ceiling and side walls run back to one vanishing point. Furniture is built the same way. Keep a ruler handy and press lightly for anything you will erase.
Rather color it? Print the bedroom 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 18
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Step 1 of 18 Draw a rectangle in the middle of your paper for the back wall. A bed will stand in front of it, so draw the middle of the bottom edge lightly. -
Step 2 of 18 Draw a light horizon line across at your eye level, a little below the middle of the wall. Mark the vanishing point on it, near the middle. -
Step 3 of 18 Line your ruler up with the vanishing point and each back-wall corner, and draw out to the edge. Draw part of the right floor line lightly: a dresser will hide it. -
Step 4 of 18 Draw a window on the back wall. The back wall faces you, so the window is a plain rectangle. Add a cross for the panes and a thin sill. -
Step 5 of 18 Draw a door on the left wall: two vertical lines up from the floor line, the near one taller, joined by a top line aimed at the vanishing point. Add a knob. -
Step 6 of 18 Draw the foot of the bed as a flat rectangle on the floor, under the window. It faces you, so it has no slanted lines. -
Step 7 of 18 From the bed's two top corners, draw toward the vanishing point: firm until you reach the back wall, then light the rest of the way to check your aim. -
Step 8 of 18 Draw a soft pillow near the back of the bed, and two straight lines across the mattress where the blanket folds back. Lines across stay flat. -
Step 9 of 18 Draw the headboard as a rectangle on the back wall, behind the pillow. Stop its bottom line where the pillow is in front. -
Step 10 of 18 A dresser stands against the right wall. Draw its near end, the part facing you, as a tall rectangle. The light floor line runs behind it. -
Step 11 of 18 Draw its top and bottom edges toward the vanishing point: firm to the dresser's far end, then light guides to check. Close the far end with a vertical line. -
Step 12 of 18 The drawers are on the side facing the middle of the room. That side goes back, so the two drawer lines aim at the vanishing point too. Add three knobs. -
Step 13 of 18 Draw a picture on the right wall above the dresser: vertical sides, with top and bottom lines aimed at the vanishing point, and a frame inside it. -
Step 14 of 18 Draw a rug on the floor in front of the bed. Its front and back edges are flat; its sides aim at the vanishing point. Add a border inside. -
Step 15 of 18 Draw floorboards from the bottom of the back wall toward you, each aimed back at the vanishing point. Stop at the bed, the rug and the dresser. -
Step 16 of 18 Erase every guide: the horizon line, the vanishing point, the light check lines, and the light floor lines now hidden behind the bed and dresser. -
Step 17 of 18 Light comes in through the window, so the faces turned toward you are turned away from it. Shade the bed's foot, the dresser's end and the door: a middle value. -
Step 18 of 18 Each piece of furniture casts a shadow on the floor toward you. Cross-hatch those shadows darkest. The window wall stays white: the lightest value.
You did it!
Your drawing does not have to look like this one. Every artist draws a little differently.
Tips for this drawing
Helpful hints
- Make the back wall about a third as wide as your paper. Too big a back wall leaves no room for the side walls.
- Lift the ruler and put it back on the vanishing point for every orthogonal. A tiny miss at the dot becomes a big miss at the paper edge.
- Doors and pictures on the side walls are not rectangles: their near side is taller than their far side.
Common mistakes
- The foot of the bed is drawn slanted, like a side wall. It faces you, so draw it with a ruler as a plain rectangle: two flat lines and two vertical lines.
- The floorboards are parallel lines, so the floor seems to stand up like a wall. Aim every floorboard at the vanishing point. They spread apart as they come toward you.
- Room lines show through the bed and the dresser. Draw those parts lightly at first and erase them once the furniture is in front.
Make it simpler
Draw only the room box: the back wall, the four corner lines, a window and a rug. Then add the bed as one rectangle with two lines to the vanishing point.
A room is a box
Stand inside a box and look at the far side: the back wall is a rectangle, and the four room corners run from its corners toward you, aimed back at the vanishing point.
Faces that look at you
A face turned straight toward you, like the back wall, the window or the foot of the bed, is drawn with only flat and vertical lines. It has no orthogonals.
Faces that go back
Walls, the floor, the tops of furniture and the side of the dresser go back into the room, so their edges aim at the vanishing point.
Light lines first
Draw lightly anything a later object will hide, and continue a firm edge lightly to the vanishing point to check it. Erase these guides when the drawing is built.
Value
Light comes from the window, so the faces turned toward you are a middle value and the shadows on the floor are darkest. The bright window wall stays white.
