Free drawing lesson

How to draw windows in 6 steps

For beginners · 30 minutes

One arched window with shutters and a flower box, from the first outline to the shadow on the wall. Windows are on every street, and once you can draw one, you understand how a whole wall is built.

What you need

• Sketchbook
• Pencil
• Fineliner 0.2 and 0.5
• Eraser
• Watercolor or one marker for colour (optional)

Step by step

1. 1

   Pick a window with character

   Choose one window: an arch, shutters, flowers on the sill. Look at it for a minute and ask yourself three things: what shape is it, how many parts does the frame divide the glass into, and what is darker, the wall or the opening.

2. 2

   Size and axis

   

   With a light pencil draw a vertical line down the middle and frame the width and height of the window. If it has an arch, mark the half-circle on top. Compare the height to the width by eye so the shape comes out right.

3. 3

   Frame and glazing bars

   

   Trace the window with the liner and give the frame thickness: a second line inside the first. Then divide the glass with bars, the main ones first (vertical and horizontal), the smaller ones after.

4. Lessons like this one, step by step, are also in the SketchMap Atlas app: Home → Art courses & workshops. Open this lesson in the app

5. 4

   Shutters, sill and shadows

   

   The window sits deeper than the wall: add a thick line on one side, that is the thickness of the wall. Under the window draw the sill as a slab, shutters made of planks at the sides, and a small flower box. Light comes from the upper left, so shadows fall down and to the right: under the sill, under the box, from the shutters. Stipple the plaster texture near the edges and leave the middle clean.

6. 5

   The glass

   

   Glass is either dark (the room inside) or light (a sky reflection). Pick one: hatch the panes, leave a glare as a pale diagonal, and add a curtain edge or a pot.

7. 6

   One colour

   

   Cover the shutters with a thin layer of blue-grey, the wall around the arch with pale ochre, and add a few terracotta dots on the flowers. The ink lines must stay visible, leave the highlights as bare paper. Stop there: the window is done.

Common mistakes

• All windows with the same width and height, though real ones differ.
• No frame thickness and no wall thickness, so the window looks stuck on.
• Shadows that fall the wrong way, not where the light goes.

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Updated 2026-11-09