How to draw · Challenge · about 45 minutes

Bedroom in Perspective

You need: Paper, Pencil, Eraser, Ruler. Optional: Colored pencils for the walls, bed and wood.

Thick lines: draw these now. Thin gray: already drawn. Dashed: light guides you erase later.

Finished
  1. 1. 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.

  2. horizon line (eye level)vanishing point

    2. 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.

  3. ceilingfloorleft wallright wall

    3. 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.

  4. 4. 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.

  5. 5. 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.

  6. 6. 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.

  7. 7. 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.

  8. 8. 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.

  9. 9. Draw the headboard as a rectangle on the back wall, behind the pillow. Stop its bottom line where the pillow is in front.

  10. 10. 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.

  11. 11. 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.

  12. 12. 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.

  13. 13. 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.

  14. 14. 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.

  15. 15. 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.

  16. erase

    16. 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.

  17. middle value

    17. 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.

  18. dark valuelight value

    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.

Practice here

Tip: Make the back wall about a third as wide as your paper. Too big a back wall leaves no room for the side walls.

Tracing worksheet

Bedroom in Perspective: trace it, then draw your own

Trace over the light lines.
Now draw it on your own.