37 Scenery Drawing Ideas for Kids (Easy to Advanced)

Scenery is the easiest subject to start with and the hardest to stop improving at. A child can draw a hill, a sun and a house on their first try, and ten years later still be working out how to make a road disappear convincingly into the distance. Every picture below is a real drawing you can put in front of a child and copy.

There are 37 of them here, running from six-line beach scenes a preschooler can finish in five minutes to detailed ink landscapes that will occupy a teenager for an afternoon. Each one comes with a note on what it actually teaches, so you can pick by skill and not just by whether it looks nice.

Once a scene holds up in pencil, the same compositions in paint are collected in these 30 landscape painting ideas, grouped by subject with notes on color and value.

Once you have the composition down, these nature sketch ideas take the same scenes apart one at a time and name the problem each drawing sets.

Once you have drawn a few of these, colouring a ready-made scene is a good way to study how depth is built without worrying about the linework — these landscape coloring pages range from eight-line fields to dense mountain valleys.

37 Scenery Drawing Ideas for Kids

1. Tall Trees Along a Dirt Path

The whole scene works because of one trick: the path is wide at the bottom of the page and narrows to almost nothing behind the figure. Draw the two edges of the path as lines that lean toward each other, then stand the trees on those edges — near trees tall and thick, far trees short and thin. The scribbled leaf clusters take seconds; the spacing of the trunks is what makes it read as distance.

2. Overlapping Mountain Range

Nothing here is harder than a triangle, but notice that no two peaks sit side by side — each one tucks behind its neighbour. That overlap is what creates depth, not the shading. Draw the front row first, then let the back peaks disappear behind them. Shade one face of every mountain on the same side so the light stays consistent across the whole range.

3. Snowy View Through an Open Window

The window frame does the composing for you. Draw the rectangle and the two open panes first, then treat everything inside it as the picture: cabin, pine, mountains, and dots of snow. Because the frame is dark and crisp and the landscape is faint, the eye jumps straight through the opening. A good first lesson in foreground versus background without needing perspective rules.

4. Colourful Village Below the Mountains

Houses are boxes with triangles on top — that part is easy. The colour is where this one earns its place: warm yellow field against cool blue and purple roofs, with the mountains left almost white so they sit far back. If your child wants more practice on the buildings themselves, these simple house drawing ideas pairs well with this scene.

5. Thatched Hut by a Stream

This is a shading exercise disguised as a landscape. The thatch is drawn with short strokes all running the same direction down the slope of the roof; the tree canopy is built from dark clumps with white gaps left between them. Keep the mountains as light outlines only. Everything dark stays near the hut, which is exactly why the hut is the first thing you notice.

6. Stairway to the Sun

Pure imagination, and worth encouraging. A staircase drawn as a stack of long rectangles climbs from the grass toward a beaming sun, with a hot air balloon parked in the clouds. There is no correct version of this picture, which is the point — it gives a child room to invent while still practising a stacked, receding shape.

7. Birds Over Pine Mountains

Three birds, three different wing positions: one gliding flat, one on the downstroke, one banking away. Vary the wings and the flock looks alive; copy the same shape three times and it looks like wallpaper. Add a scatter of tiny V marks in the far sky for depth, and keep the pines as simple spiky triangles so the birds stay the stars.

8. Simplest Possible Beach

Six or seven lines and you have a beach. One flat horizon, a couple of curved shoreline strokes, short dashes for the sun’s reflection on the water, and a palm tree pushed right to the edge of the frame so it partly leaves the page. That crop is a grown-up compositional move a five-year-old can copy without knowing it.

9. Tractor in a Wheat Field

The tractor is two circles of very different sizes joined by a boxy body — get the big rear wheel and small front wheel right and the machine reads instantly. Behind it, the fields are drawn as flat stripes of different greens running across the page. Those stripes flatten the distance and let the golden wheat in front sit forward.

10. Red Path at Sunset

Warm path, cool sky, one small figure walking away from us. The colour choice is doing all the emotional work here, and the heavy crayon pressure on the red makes the path glow against the green banks. If your child loves this kind of sky, these sunset colouring pages give plenty more colour schemes to copy.

11. Castle on the Headland

Notice the palm fronds hanging into the top corners — they frame the view like curtains and make the castle feel far away across the bay. Draw the shoreline as a long lazy S so the eye travels from the bottom of the page up to the tower. Horizontal ripple lines are enough for the water; resist filling it in.

12. Straight Road to the Hills

One-point perspective at its most honest. Put a dot on the horizon, run both road edges to it, and every fence post between here and there shrinks as it approaches that dot. The two framing trees are drawn tall enough to run off the top of the page, which pins the viewer down on the road.

13. Playground with a Slide

Familiar places are easier to draw than beautiful ones because the child already knows what belongs there. The climbing frame is a set of boxes and ladders; the slide is two parallel curves. Once the structure is down, let them populate it — friends on the swings, a dog, a dropped scooter. That is where the picture becomes theirs.

14. Leaves Blowing Over Autumn Fields

The fields are drawn as long curved bands, each one a slightly different texture — dots, dashes, small circles. That variation is what stops rolling hills from looking like a plain green blanket. The loose leaves floating in the sky are the mood: tip them at different angles so they look carried by wind rather than pasted on.

15. Desert with Saguaro Cacti

A useful change of scenery for kids who default to green hills every time. Cacti are simple columns with arms bending up at the elbow; dunes are long soft curves that overlap one another. Flat-topped mesas in the distance say “desert” louder than any amount of detail, and the sparse empty space is part of the look.

16. Sunburst Over a Line-Drawn River

Every part of this picture is made from lines running in one direction: straight rays for the sun, tight contour lines following the shape of the mountains, and long swirling lines for the river. It takes patience rather than skill, and it teaches something valuable — that direction of stroke can describe a surface all on its own.

17. Waterfall into a Rocky Pool

The falling water is just long vertical lines with gaps left between them, and the gaps matter more than the lines — white paper reads as spray. Where the water lands, switch to short broken horizontal marks for turbulence. Rocks at the base are lumpy pentagons; the foliage is cloud-shaped clumps with a ragged edge.

18. Rainy Day Under a Blossom Tree

Rain does not have to be grey. Here it is drawn as fat blue teardrops scattered across the page, with two bright umbrellas and an empty yellow chair sitting in the grass. The empty chair is the storytelling detail — somebody was just here. Ask your child who it was and the drawing usually grows another character.

19. Big Low Sun Over Wildflowers

Two scales in one picture: an enormous sun sinking behind the hills, and a foreground crowded with tiny individual flowers. Draw the flowers biggest and most detailed at the very bottom of the page and let them shrink into vague dots as they climb toward the hills. That size drop is the entire depth effect.

20. Cabin, Stream and Tulips

Here the tulips are drawn larger than the cabin, which is not a mistake — they are close to us and the cabin is far away. Kids often draw everything the same size, so this is a good picture to copy deliberately. Start with the giant flowers at the bottom, then squeeze the cabin, stream and mountains into the space above them.

21. Blossom Branch Over a Meadow

A branch reaching in from the top corner turns a plain field into a composition. It gives the flat landscape a frame and something dark to contrast against the pale hills. Draw the branch first while the page is empty, then fit the fields and the meadow around it rather than the other way round.

22. Busy Street from a Kid’s Eye

Stick figures, a boldly coloured car, windows drawn as a grid of squares, planes crossing the sky. It is unpolished and completely readable, which is what a city drawing should be at this age. When they are ready for buildings that recede properly, two point perspective drawing of a city is the natural next step.

23. Friendly Dragon in the Countryside

Dropping a character into a landscape solves the “my picture is boring” problem instantly. The dragon is built from soft rounded shapes with a patterned belly, and the village behind him is deliberately small so he looms. Anything works here — a dinosaur, a giant cat, a robot — as long as the scenery stays in scale with it.

24. Portrait in Front of the Village

An ambitious one for older kids: a carefully drawn face occupying the right half of the page, with the village sketched much more loosely behind. The difference in line weight is the whole idea — sharp, considered strokes on the face, quick light ones on the background. Both drawn with the same care would fight each other.

25. Sitting in the Grass with a Puppy

The figures are seen from behind, which is a gift for young artists — no faces to get wrong, and the drawing still carries feeling. Both are placed low and left, looking toward the house across the field, so the empty space on the right becomes part of the story rather than a gap to fill.

26. Classic Peak, Pines and River

The scene almost everyone draws, done properly. The river is widest at the bottom edge and narrows as it climbs toward the mountains, the pines get shorter row by row, and the central peak is drawn with a hard line while the ones behind it are softer. Copy those three habits and any mountain scene improves.

27. Orange Bus on a Red Road

Sometimes the whole landscape is one line. The road here is a single red stroke, the grass a row of green ticks, the trees loose yellow scribbles — and the bus, drawn with real care, becomes the subject. A good reminder that scenery does not need to be finished to work as a setting.

28. Sailboat on Open Water

Two triangles of different sizes, a shallow curved hull, and rows of soft wave lines. The sails lean the same way as the waves are moving, which is what makes the boat look like it is travelling rather than parked. Keep the water lines uneven and broken; ruler-straight ripples kill it every time.

29. River Winding into the Distance

Almost nothing in this drawing except a river bending three times as it retreats. Each bend is narrower than the last. Shade the grass with soft directional strokes leaning away from the bank, leave the water almost white, and the emptiness reads as calm rather than unfinished.

30. Cyclists on a Country Lane

The busiest picture on this page and a proper challenge. There are cyclists at three different distances, and the further away they are the fewer lines they get — the nearest rider has a face, the furthest is barely a shape on wheels. Block in the road and cottage first, then add figures last so they sit in the scene instead of floating on it.

31. Autumn Road Between Fences

The trees are pink, orange and deep red rather than the usual green, and the grey road running between them keeps the colours from shouting over each other. Layering matters here: a light pass of yellow under the orange gives the foliage a glow that a single hard pass cannot. Worth reading a few colour pencil technique notes before starting this one.

32. Mushroom House at Night

A night scene done the smart way — heavy dark blue crayon across the whole sky, then bright warm shapes laid on top of it. The orange moon and the glowing mushroom roof pop precisely because everything around them is dark. Small invented details, a bench, a duck, a strawberry the size of a house, make it feel like somewhere real to visit.

33. Country Road Past a Yellow House

A calmer version of the road scene, and a good one for learning to shade a curve. The road is darker at its edges and lighter down the middle where the light hits, the fence posts shrink as they follow it back, and the house sits at the point where the road disappears — the natural place for the eye to end up.

34. Balloons Over a Green Field

The simplest idea here and one of the most satisfying. A flat green field, an open blue sky, and seven balloons floating at different heights and sizes. Vary those two things and the sky feels deep; line them up in a row and it goes flat. Leave a small white highlight on each balloon so they look round.

35. Two Kids Looking Down at a Town

The town is drawn as hundreds of small repeated roofs and boxes, which takes time but no special skill, and the two figures standing on the near slope give it scale. Without them the town would be a texture; with them it becomes a place two people are looking at. Save this one for a long rainy afternoon.

36. Two Palms on a Tiny Island

Bold outlines and flat blocks of colour, cartoon-style. The two trunks cross in an X rather than standing parallel, which is the small choice that keeps it from looking stiff. A starfish on the sand and a couple of clouds finish it — a good twenty-minute drawing for a child who wants something done today.

37. Cottage at the End of a Path

Soft graphite, a path curving in from the bottom left, and a cottage tucked among bushes with two birds in the sky. The shading is kept light everywhere except under the eaves and beneath the bushes, which is what gives the little house weight. There are plenty more cottage sketching ideas if this style clicks with them.

Which Ideas Suit Which Age

Skill matters more than birthdays, but this is a reasonable starting point when you are choosing something for a particular child.

• Ages 3–5: the minimal beach (7), the balloons (34), the stairway to the sun (6) and the orange bus (27). Big shapes, bold colour, nothing that punishes a wobbly line.
• Ages 6–10: the playground (13), the tractor (9), the waterfall (17) and the desert (15). Enough parts to keep them busy, no perspective rules required. Our easy drawing ideas for kids of all ages covers the same age range across other subjects.
• Ages 11–15: the straight road (12), the overlapping mountains (2), the classic peak (26) and the autumn road (31). This is where perspective, overlap and colour layering start paying off.
• Ages 16 and up: the cyclists (30), the portrait in front of the village (24), the sunburst linework (16) and the thatched hut (5). Long, patient drawings with real shading decisions in them.

Why Scenery Works So Well for Kids

It needs nothing but paper and a pencil, and the subject is already familiar — every child has seen a sky, a tree and a road. There is no wrong answer either, which matters enormously for a child who freezes when asked to draw something “properly”. A purple sky is a choice, not a mistake.

Landscapes also quietly teach the things that transfer to every other subject: how overlapping shapes create depth, how objects shrink with distance, how light falls consistently across a scene. A child who has drawn twenty of these will draw a better portrait afterwards without knowing why.

Tips for Parents and Teachers

• Print or open the reference and let them copy it directly. Copying is how every artist starts — originality comes later and comes easily.
• Ask what happens next in the picture rather than praising the technique. “Who lives in that cottage?” gets more drawing out of a child than “that’s very good”.
• Keep the paper small at first. A full A3 sheet can be intimidating; a postcard-sized drawing gets finished, and finished drawings build confidence.
• Draw the big shapes before any detail. Sky, ground, then the main object, then the small things. Children who start with a perfect flower usually run out of page.
• Take them outside with a sketchbook once a month. Drawing from a real view is harder than copying, but it is the fastest way to improve observation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the easiest scenery for a child to draw first?

The minimal beach scene (idea 7). It is a horizon line, a few ripple marks, one palm tree and a sun — roughly seven strokes in total, and it still looks like a place. Most children can finish it in under five minutes, which is the point of a first drawing.

How do I teach a child to make a drawing look deep rather than flat?

Three rules, in this order: draw things smaller as they go further back, let near things overlap far things, and put more detail in the foreground than the background. The straight road (idea 12) and the wildflower field (idea 19) demonstrate all three between them.

What should kids use — pencil, crayon or colouring pencils?

Crayon and marker suit younger children because bold shapes forgive shaky hands. Graphite pencil suits anyone learning shading, since it can be pushed light to dark and erased. Coloured pencils sit in between and reward layering. Several drawings above use each, so try all three and see which one your child returns to.

Why does my child’s drawing always look the same?

Because they have one landscape memorised — usually a sun in the corner, a green strip and a house. The fix is not encouragement, it is a new reference. Hand them the desert (15), the night-time mushroom house (32) or the snowy window (3) and the habit breaks on its own.

Pick one drawing, print it, and put it next to the paper. When that one is finished, pick another from a different part of this list — a colour scene after a pencil one, a busy scene after a simple one. If you are drawing alongside them, our scenery sketching ideas covers the same subjects at an adult level.