You don’t have to be an architect to draw attractive houses. With a
little bit of concentration and attention to detail, they are surprisingly
easy to master. It’s simply a matter of starting with a basic
foundation shape and adding to it, step by step, until you’re done.
Houses are made up of many straight lines, hard angles, and very
little freehand work. Because of that, you’re going to make extensive
use of a ruler or a triangle. Drawing a house will require many little
decisions, such as, “If I move this line a tad this way, will the window
look even or tilted?” Decisions like these are a natural and necessary
part of the drawing process.
During the drawing process, keep an eye out for the symmetry of
your work. Make sure that all the vertical and horizontal lines are
parallel, that each element is carefully centered, and that the
windows are spaced evenly apart at regular intervals. A house gets its
pleasing look from its symmetrical repetition.
The colonial-style house is traditional and vastly popular. Everything
about this stately house is straightforward and highly symmetrical.
There are few, if any, curves to a colonial house. This makes our job
as an artist even easier: We can draw just about everything as
parallel lines or right angles, with the prominent exception of the long,
diagonal lines on either side of the roof. These houses are built with
clapboard: long, thin wooden planks that create light horizontal
striations across the face of the house—another signature design
element.