How to draw a 1 point perspective landscape

Welcome! This blog post features a guided perspective drawing to create a 1 point perspective landscape featuring railroad tracks, a railroad station, and more! For this activity, you will need a piece of white paper, pencil, eraser, and ruler. This drawing can be finalized in many ways— such as using sharpie, collage, colored pencils, paint and more! Get creative and think about how you can put your own unique details into your landscape. Have fun! 

Step one:

In the middle of your picture plan, lightly draw a straight horizon line. Place a single vanishing point in the middle of the horizon line.

Step two

Draw four DIAGONAL lines that converge towards the vanishing point to create the railroad tracks. Bring these lines to the bottom of the picture plane.

Note these lines get smaller and closer together as they approach the vanishing point.

Step three:

Begin to draw the wooden planks (also known as “sleepers”). These lines will be HORIZONTAL and run PARALLEL to the horizon line. They will become smaller and closer together as they recede towards to the vanishing point.

Step four:

Add additional details to the railroad tracks on the sides of the rails.

Step five:

Let’s begin drawing the railroad station in one point perspective. Begin by drawing a rectangle. Be sure to keep the corners square 90 degree angles.

Step six:

Draw two DIAGONAL lines that connect to the vanishing point to form the sides of the railroad station.

Step seven:

Draw a straight, VERTICAL line to define where the wall ends. Be sure this line meets at the horizon line at a perpendicular/ 90 degree angle.

Step eight:

Add details such as doors, windows, roof, etc. Note which lines are horizontal, vertical and/or converging to the vanishing point.

Step nine:

Let’s add some electrical lines! Lightly draw two DIAGONAL guidelines that converge towards the vanishing point. These lines will define where the top and bottom of the poles will be.

Step ten:

Draw VERTICAL lines to define the poles. Note how the poles get thinner, closer together, and smaller as they move towards the vanishing point.

Step eleven:

To define the electrical lines, draw four DIAGONAL lines that converge to the vanishing point. Then, draw HORIZONTAL lines for additional details.

Step twelve:

Let’s add some trees! Begin by drawing two DIAGONAL guidelines which will help to define the tops and bottoms of the trees.

Step thirteen:

Sketch the trees, and a sidewalk with DIAGONAL lines.

Note how the organic lines found in nature do not need to rigidly follow the rules of linear perspective. However, the trees will still appear to get smaller, closer together, and less detailed as they move towards the vanishing point.

Step fourteen:

Take a moment to clean up your sketch by erasing out any lines that should not remain visible.

Step fifteen:

Add some fun details like a sunset and clouds that vary in size. Clouds may appear larger towards the top and smaller as they get closer to the horizon line.

Step sixteen:

Using a tool of your choice (such as pencil for shading or colored pencils), begin finalizing your line drawing.

Final step:

Add shadows. The sun is setting in the middle, therefore shadows will be angled on the side opposite the sun.