How To Draw an Old Castle

In three simple, easy to follow steps Quickdraw will teach you how to draw a cartoon castle fit for any king or queen. This drawing idea is suitable for children aged five and older. All we need to begin is a trusty pencil, marker pen, and some colours. Follow the YouTube video and instructions below. And don't forget to share your illustration with your family and friends!

Art materials needed:

A plain sketchpad to draw on, a sharp pencil to draw with, an eraser to rub out messy lines, a black marker pen to go over pencil lines, and a bunch of colouring pencils or felt tip pens to add a splash of colour!

Step 1: Drawing with pencil

This is a big one guys, so strap yourselves in. Starting with the front castle wall, draw a regular square shape like this.
Some guides across the middle - and from the centre point draw two arcs down to the bottom line. That;s right, this is the castle gate.

Now we will draw the top of the castle wall. To do this simply add a zigzag line in the top half of the square - use a guideline if you need to.
Our castle needs some watchtowers either side of the wall. These are big, circular tubes made of stone.
So to make them look round instead of flat we can put semi circle lines at the top and bottom, and then use the eraser to rub out the original straight lines we drew before. There, much better.

The living quarters can be found inside the stone castle walls. Because we can’t see behind them, we’ll draw the top and the roof of the quarters.
This roof will look the same as the roof on a house. A simple arch-shape like this.
Maybe a narrow window for the castle owners to look out from. Each of these windows are going to be slim, with a stone window sill underneath.
Some diagonal lines on the roof. Perhaps this can be made of wood.

Try adding some extra windows on the front castle wall. If you’re drawing them either side of the gate, make sure they are level for symmetry.
More windows in the watchtowers too. They are slim so the archers inside can hide and fire arrows to oncoming invaders.
Ok guys, some more detail on the watchtowers - a thick rim on the top and a wide foundation at the bottom. Both on the left and right towers. But this is totally up to you if you want to draw these bits.
Although it does make the castle look big and strong, don’t you think?

Right, what’s next for our castle? Perhaps another tower, but smack bang in the centre, nice and tall.
Think of this as a chimney poking out of the roof, but just like the other towers, this will have a window too.
The towers have roofs too, but they will be pointed like a witches hat or an upside down ice cream cone. One for each. Nice.
If you have some space on the left, throw in one more castle watchtower. You know the style - a rounded top edge, slim window and a witches hat roof.

It wouldn’t be an old castle without some flags. We can add one at the top of each roof.
We are going to make our flags look wavy, because it’s probably very windy that high up. A common mistake is to think flags should be drawn as rectangles. That’s just not true!
Our castle gate is wide open, we need some protection for the living quarters inside. Some long, study iron bars. Two or three down, and another two or three behind, going across.
Haha, no invading kings or queens are getting in now!
We’re almost done, but if you’re keen for more detail you can try adding some decoration to the roof like this…
Or drawing some old, rickerty, loose bricks, which you can make a different colour from the rest of the walls.
And last of all, a long and winding path leading out to the castle grounds.

Step 2: Drawing with pen

Next, fetch that black marker pen and start inking those outlines of the castle.
From bricks, to flags, to window sills… trace all of those pencil lines nice and smoothly.
We’re going to speed thing up for that part, but press pause at any time if you need to check which lines to use the black marker on.
Nice job, what a spectacular old castle!
Once the ink is dry you can erase all of the pencil lines so we have a super clean drawing.

Step 3: Colouring in

Time for some colour, guys! Roll out the felt tips… or pencils if you prefer.
Now, as tradition goes, old castles are grey because of the ancient brickwork. But remember, this is your castle, and if you think it’s going to look better in pink or rainbow colours then don’t let anyone stop you!
Our pro art tip is to use shades of grey for the outside and dark colours for the roofs for a nice contrast.
And because this castle is old and maybe no one lives here anymore, the window slits can be black - no lights on at home today!
Enjoy your colouring, guys… it’s very relaxing don’t you think? We’ll check back in soon.
Now how about that. You have drawn an incredible old castle! Remarkable work. Don’t forget to check out the full range of Quickdraw videos on our YouTube channel.

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