I am very happy you are interested in castle drawings and my special
thanks to you that you are here. Welcome to the medieval Europe. This is
a very interesting and very mysterious topic full of unexpected things.
Drawing castles allows you to use your fantasy. For me, castles equal
history in “real estate”. So many stories, human dramas, tragedies end
legends are hidden behind their thick 900 years old stone walls.
Many
of them are only ruins, but just imagine how they were built by real
people. I can hardly explain by words the goosebumps, the feeling you
experience when you are there when the giant soars right before you.
I
am lucky being born in central Europe where the medieval castles are
sprinkled throughout the countryside. It offers you countless
opportunities for castle drawings.
Very nice pictures to copy are
old drawings, carvings or lithographs. They are simple but have the
power to convey the reality from those ages.
click on the images to enlarge
On the picture above is a simple and rather easy to copy castle drawing of the entrance gate area.
It is in fact very real, just as if you are about to enter to the
castle. Click on the picture to enlarge, it will open in new tab or
window. Print it out and let’s go to the next step.
Draw
a weak pencil outline of the castle’s main features or simply trace it
by tracing paper. Start from the left side if possible. Draw the roof,
small arrow loop openings on the lower building – turret.
The gate
has a gothic style opening, so it might be that the castle was built in
that period. Also, make markings of damaged parts of the walls; we
shall shade them darker or point out the building stones.
This
work is very helpful and necessary because you will have the total
outline and the shape of the castle drawing ready so that you can
concentrate on the “coloring – shading - work”.
Start the shading work from whichever part you like. I did it from the
top right tower. Since this is a pencil drawing, use a piece of paper
under your right hand (karate chop part) that directly touches the
drawing paper, not to smudge the drawing.
See that the roof tiles
on the building right under the tower are wavy shaped, so make wavy
lines to create more realistic drawing.
The
wall of the building on the right under the tower is in shade, it is
dark and you need not to put much attention onto details.
However,
the windows should be slightly featured. They are weakly visible but
they are there. It is enough to just roughly sketch these shady darker
parts.
The wall that is most visible is the lower building –
turret on the left side, left from the entrance gate. There we shall pay
a little more attention and work it out nicely.
Use your fantasy.
The symmetry of the building should be obeyed but the parts where the
building stones are visible can be virtually anywhere. Mostly are
visible on the corners.
In
similar fashion, shade the rest of the buildings. Be careful however,
while shading the roofs. Roof tiles should be pointed out. You can
smudge them by cotton swab later but the shape should indicate that it
is a roof. Your drawing will look much better.
The gate still
remains white; we shall shade it in next step. Notice however, that the
sunlight is coming from the right side. Therefore the shade of the
entrance gate part is visible on the turret wall on the left.
Similarly
the diagonal shadow cast on the turret on the right side of the gate.
Guard rails on the left side of the road were probably built recently.
You can draw them but need not if you don’t want.
Last
step is to finish the gate itself. Pay special attention to the visible
folds on the left side of the gothic gate opening. This gate seems like
some short tunnel so shade it just dark as you see on the picture.
Again,
use your fantasy wherever possible. I did not draw leaves on the trees
in front of the right side turret but you can do so and, your castle
will look like a summer drawing. You can also add clouds or ravens or
whatever. Use your fantasy.
These types of castle drawings can be
well made in sepia color, so that they will be even more impressive and
more authentic – “old looking”.
