26 Scenery Drawing for Kids With Hills, Little Houses and Sunny Skies

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Scenery drawing for kids works best when the picture is built from shapes everyone already knows: a triangle hill, a half circle sun, a box house with a pointy roof. That is exactly what you get below, 27 cheerful scenes made from big friendly shapes, thick marker outlines and bright flat color, with nothing fiddly to slow little hands down.

Pick one that matches the mood today, read the short steps together, and let the crayons or markers do the fun part. Every scene fits on one page of plain paper and can be finished in a single sitting, so there is always time to tape the result straight to the fridge.

Start simple with a house on a hill, the scene most children draw first because every shape in it is one everyone knows. Draw one big curved hill across the lower half of the paper, then a square house on top with a triangle roof, a square window and a small rectangle door.

Add a half circle sun in the top corner with five or six short straight lines poking out of it, and two fluffy cloud shapes made from three or four bumps each. Go over every line with a thick black marker once the pencil shapes look right, then fill the hill green, the roof red and the sun yellow.

If the house ends up too big for the hill, that is an easy fix: just make the hill a little taller with another curved line underneath, or shrink the house by drawing a smaller square inside it and erasing the old lines. Crayons work just as well as markers for the filling-in part if that is what is on hand.

Measure the house against the hill before going over it in marker: it should sit inside the curve of the hill with room to spare on both sides, not spill over the edge.

Palette: Grass Green,Sunshine Yellow,Brick Red,Sky Blue

Move from the house to a whole farm, keeping the same hill-and-sky setup but swapping the house for a barn. Draw the ground as one long curved line, then build the barn from a square body topped with a triangle roof and a smaller triangle peeking out above the square, like a hat on a hat.

Add one round silo beside the barn, just a tall rectangle with a half circle on top, and a simple fence made of three or four short vertical lines joined by two horizontal ones. A couple of oval animal shapes grazing nearby, a white sheep blob or a brown cow shape, finish the scene without adding real detail.

Barns almost always come out too narrow at first try: if that happens, just widen the square body before adding the roof, since the roof triangle needs enough room to sit comfortably on top. Red crayon or marker makes the barn, but a red colored pencil works fine as a swap if markers are not to hand.

If this is your first time drawing a barn, draw the square body first and only add the roof once the square looks the right width, it keeps the whole shape from looking squashed.

Palette: Barn Red,Straw Yellow,Grass Green,White

After the farm, head to the coast for a beach with a boat, a scene built from flat bands of color rather than curves. Draw one straight horizontal line across the middle of the page for the horizon, then a wavy line below it for where the sea meets the sand.

The boat sits on the water as a simple curved hull shape, like a smile, with one triangle sail on a short straight mast rising out of it. A few seagull marks, just two curved lines like a flattened letter M, finish the sky, and a round sun or a few small shells along the sand add the last touches.

Where this scene usually goes wrong is the horizon line drifting diagonally instead of staying flat: resting the ruler edge of a book along the page before drawing that first line keeps it level. No ruler handy works too, just draw it slowly in one go rather than in short shaky strokes.

Keep the sea and sand as two clearly different blues and yellows rather than blending them, since flat color blocks read clearest at this level.

Palette: Ocean Blue,Sandy Yellow,White,Sunshine Yellow

Trade the beach for a cold adventure with a snowy mountain and a tent, which uses the same hill trick from earlier but sharper. Instead of a soft curve, draw the mountain as one tall triangle with a jagged zigzag line near the top for the snow cap, then add a smaller triangle tent at its base.

A short straight line across the tent opening and a tiny triangle flag on top finish the tent, while two or three pointed pine trees made from stacked triangles fill the space around it. The sky above stays plain blue or gets a few stars if it is drawn as a night scene instead.

Eye level matters here: since the viewer looks up at a mountain from the ground, keep the tent and trees small at the bottom of the page and let the mountain take up most of the height, which makes it feel properly tall. If white crayon will not show on the white paper, just leave the snow cap unfilled so the white of the page does the job.

Try it as a quick ten-minute sketch with just the mountain and tent, or spend closer to forty minutes adding trees, stars and a little campfire glow beside the tent.

Palette: Mountain Grey,White,Tent Orange,Pine Green

Build on the single house from earlier by drawing a whole village of three houses side by side. Keep each house a simple box with a triangle roof, but vary the height and roof color of each one slightly so the row does not look like three copies stuck together.

Draw the tallest house in the middle and the two shorter ones on either side, since that small size difference instantly makes the row look more interesting without adding any extra steps. A single curved path winding between the houses and a few simple round bushes along it tie the whole village together.

If the three houses end up squashed together with no gap, lightly sketch three evenly spaced rectangles in pencil first and only add roofs and windows once the spacing looks right. Compare the width of each house against a finger span to keep them roughly even before committing to marker.

Give each roof a different color, red, blue and green work nicely together, so the village reads as a cheerful little street rather than one long building.

Palette: Brick Red,Soft Blue,Grass Green,Pale Yellow

Slow the pace down with a garden scene, which is really just a patch of ground with a fence and a few flowers. Draw a low horizontal fence first, a line of evenly spaced vertical posts joined by two horizontal rails, running across the lower third of the page.

Behind the fence, add three or four simple flowers, each one a small circle center surrounded by five or six oval petals, on short straight stems. A butterfly made from two small wing loops and one curved antenna line, plus a round watering can shape beside the fence, finish the scene nicely.

Getting the fence posts evenly spaced is the trickiest part: mark small dots along the fence line first with a pencil, evenly spaced apart, then draw each post straight up from a dot so they line up neatly. No fence posts needed at all if it feels fiddly, a single curved border of flowers along the bottom edge works just as well as a garden.

If this is your first fence, drawing the horizontal rails before the vertical posts makes it much easier to keep the whole fence level.

Palette: Wood Brown,Petal Pink,Grass Green,Sunshine Yellow

Water scenes are a nice change of pace, and a pond with a duck is one of the easiest to get right. Draw the pond as one wide oval taking up the lower half of the page, then a simple duck shape sitting on top of it: an oval body, a smaller round head, a short triangle beak and one curved wing line.

A few lily pads, flattened circles with one notch cut out of the edge, float on the water around the duck, and two or three reeds made from tall thin triangles grow up along the pond’s edge. Short wavy lines inside the oval give the water a little movement without any real detail.

Ducks often come out looking flat or lopsided when the head is drawn too small for the body: comparing the head circle to about a third the size of the body oval before committing to marker keeps the proportions friendly and round. Blue poster paint is a nice swap for the pond if only crayons are on hand, since it pools into a smoother color than wax.

Add a few ripple lines spreading out from the duck to suggest it has just paddled by, a small touch that makes the whole pond feel more alive.

Palette: Pond Blue,Soft Yellow,Lily Green,White

From the open pond, head into a forest with a deer standing among the trees. Draw three or four pine trees first, each one a stack of two or three triangles getting smaller toward the top, spaced out across the page with a short trunk line at the bottom of each.

The deer stands in the gaps between the trees: a simple oval body on four thin straight legs, a smaller oval head with two tall thin ears, and two little branching lines on top for antlers if it is drawn as a buck. A scattering of round bushes and a few fallen leaf shapes on the ground finish the forest floor.

Legs are the part most likely to look wobbly on a first try, since four thin lines can easily end up different lengths: drawing two short parallel lines close together for the front legs and two more for the back legs, all starting from roughly the same horizontal line on the body, keeps the deer standing steady. Brown crayon works for the deer, but light tan or orange is a good swap if brown feels too dark against the green trees.

Vary this scene another day by swapping the deer for a fox or a rabbit using the same simple oval-body approach.

Palette: Pine Green,Fawn Brown,Bark Brown,White

Rivers add a nice curve to a drawing after all those straight forest trunks, so try a river with a bridge next. Draw the river as one wide curving band flowing from the top of the page down to the bottom, widest in the middle and narrower at each end, like a lazy letter S.

A simple arched bridge crosses the river partway down, just one curved line for the top of the arch and a straight line underneath for the bottom of the bridge deck, with two short support posts at each end. A few round rocks along the riverbank and two or three fish shapes, little ovals with a triangle tail, peeking through the water finish the scene.

The river often ends up too straight when a child rushes the curve: slowing right down and drawing it in one smooth continuous stroke, rather than several short ones, makes the curve look far more natural. If the bridge arch looks lopsided, drawing a small dot where the top of the arch should sit first, centered over the river, gives a target to curve toward from each side.

Try the quick version with just the river and bridge in ten minutes, or spend longer adding rocks, fish and a grassy bank on each side for a fuller forty-minute scene.

Palette: River Blue,Stone Grey,Grass Green,Bark Brown

Bring the scenery into town with a city park, a scene that mixes nature shapes with a few straight city lines. Draw a winding path through the middle of the page first, then two or three round-topped trees along it and a simple bench made from a few straight rectangles beside the path.

Behind the park, a row of simple buildings, tall rectangles with small square windows, lines the top of the page like a skyline. A lamp post, a thin straight line topped with a small rectangle, and a bird or two flying overhead finish the scene.

Buildings in the background are the part most likely to overwhelm the park if they get too detailed: keeping each one to a plain rectangle with just two or three windows, rather than drawing every brick, keeps the park itself the star of the picture. If buildings feel too tricky altogether, a simple fence line in their place still reads clearly as a city park boundary.

Draw the path first and build everything else around it, since that keeps the whole park feeling like one connected space rather than scattered shapes.

Palette: Grass Green,Brick Red,Sky Blue,Bark Brown

Switch the daytime park sky for something warmer with a sunset over the sea. Draw a flat horizon line across the middle of the page, then a big half circle sun sitting right on that line, half above the water and half below it, since that is what makes a sunset read instantly.

Color the sky in bands above the sun, orange closest to it fading up into pink or purple higher up, and mirror a few of those colors in short reflected streaks on the water below. A simple bird shape or two flying across the sky and a few gentle wave lines on the sea finish the picture.

Light comes from the sun sitting low on the horizon here, which means every color above and below it should stay warm, oranges, pinks and soft purples, rather than switching to a bright daytime blue that would break the mood. If only a few crayon colors are on hand, blending orange and yellow side by side still creates a convincing glow without needing pink or purple at all.

Keep the sun itself uncolored or very pale yellow so it stands out brightly against the deeper orange sky around it.

Palette: Sunset Orange,Soft Pink,Deep Purple,Ocean Blue

Give the village scene from earlier a different mood with a rainy village, built from the same simple houses but under a grey sky. Draw two or three box houses with triangle roofs close together, then fill the sky above them with soft grey cloud shapes instead of sun and blue.

Straight diagonal lines falling from the clouds make the rain, and a curved rainbow-shaped umbrella or two held by a tiny stick-figure passerby adds a cheerful detail without much extra drawing. A few puddle shapes, flattened ovals on the ground, with a thin reflected line of a house inside them finish the scene.

Rain lines that all slant the same direction look far neater than ones drawn every which way, so keeping every diagonal line tilting the same way across the whole page makes the rain feel consistent rather than messy. No grey crayon on hand works fine too, light blue clouds still read clearly as a rainy sky.

Give the umbrella a bright color, red or yellow against all that grey, so it becomes the one thing the eye lands on first.

Palette: Cloud Grey,Rain Blue,Umbrella Red,Brick Red

Bring the weather from rain to snow with a cozy house sending smoke up from its chimney. Draw the house as the familiar box-and-triangle shape, then add a small rectangle chimney on the roof with two or three soft curling loops rising out of it for smoke.

Cover the ground and roof in a thin layer of white, either left as plain paper or dotted lightly with white crayon, and scatter a few simple snowflake shapes, small plus signs or six-pointed stars, across the sky. A bare tree made from a brown trunk and a few branching lines, with no leaves, stands beside the house to show it is deep winter.

Smoke curls are the detail that makes this scene feel warm rather than just snowy, so drawing them as soft loose loops rather than straight lines helps them look like real drifting smoke. For more ideas built the same way, this collection of winter scenery drawing ideas shows plenty of other snowy little scenes worth trying next.

Add a single lit window, a small yellow square against the house, to suggest someone is home and warm inside.

Palette: Brick Red,White,Sky Blue,Window Yellow

Open the page up wide with a field of flowers, a scene that is mostly about repeating one simple flower shape across the paper. Draw a single flower first, a round center with five or six oval petals around it, then repeat that same shape ten or twelve times at different heights and sizes across the lower half of the page.

Give the flowers a mix of two or three colors, pink, yellow and purple work nicely together, rather than making every single one the same, since that variety is what makes a field look full rather than planted in neat rows. A plain blue sky with one round sun and a couple of fluffy clouds finishes the scene without pulling attention away from the flowers.

Fields of repeated shapes can start to look stiff if every flower faces the same way: turning a few stems slightly left or right, and making a few flowers smaller as if further away, gives the field some natural movement. If drawing each flower from scratch feels slow, a flower-shaped stencil or even the bottom of a small cup for the center circle speeds the repeating part right up.

Keep the stems short and simple, just one straight or gently curved line each, so the flower heads stay the main focus of the page.

Palette: Petal Pink,Sunshine Yellow,Lilac Purple,Grass Green

Jump from a flower field to somewhere warmer with a small island and a palm tree sitting in the middle of the sea. Draw one small round or oval shape for the island first, sitting low in the lower third of the page, surrounded by plain blue water that fills the rest of the space.

The palm tree grows from the center of the island: one curved trunk leaning gently to one side, topped with four or five long curved leaves fanning out like a loose star, plus a couple of round coconuts tucked under the leaves. A bright sun in the corner and a few simple wave lines around the island finish the scene.

The trunk is the part most likely to come out too straight and stiff: drawing it as a single gentle curve rather than a straight line, the way a real palm leans slightly, makes the whole tree feel far more relaxed and tropical. No curved trunk feels natural at first try, a straight trunk with leaves at the top still reads perfectly well as a palm tree for this level.

Let the island be small compared to the water around it, since that contrast is what makes it feel like its own little world surrounded by sea.

Palette: Ocean Blue,Sandy Yellow,Palm Green,Bark Brown

Return to open land with a windmill standing in a field, a scene built around one tall shape with moving blades. Draw the windmill tower as a tall narrow triangle, wider at the bottom than the top, then add a small round cap and four long thin blades crossing in an X shape at the very top.

Rolling green hills fill the ground below, and a scattering of small flowers or a simple fence along the bottom edge adds a little extra interest without competing with the windmill itself. A few clouds and a sun in the sky finish the scene.

Measuring the blades against the tower keeps the windmill looking balanced: each blade should reach out roughly as far as the tower is tall, so if the blades look too short or too long once drawn, simply redraw them a touch longer or shorter until that rough match feels right. If an X shape for the blades feels tricky, two simple crossed straight lines work just as well, since the cap at the center is what reads as a windmill either way.

Try adding a second, smaller windmill further back on the hill next time, which gives the field a sense of distance without any new shapes to learn.

Palette: Stone Grey,Blade White,Grass Green,Sky Blue

Lift the view up into the sky with a hot air balloon floating above a farm. Draw the balloon first since it is the main subject: one large rounded shape, wider at the bottom and narrower toward the top, with a small basket hanging underneath on two or four thin lines.

Palette: Balloon Red,Balloon Yellow,Grass Green,Sky Blue

Keep the eye moving with a train chugging through the countryside, a scene built from simple stacked rectangles. Draw the main engine first, a boxy rectangle body with a slightly taller cab at the front and a round wheel or two underneath, then attach two or three simple carriage rectangles behind it, each one just a box with small square windows.

Soft curling puffs of smoke rise from a short funnel on the engine, drawn the same way as the chimney smoke from the snowy house, in loose curved loops rather than straight lines. Rolling green hills, a few trees and a simple track made of two parallel lines with short rungs between them carry the train across the page.

Wheels are the trickiest part to keep even: drawing all the wheels the same size by tracing around one small coin or bottle cap for each circle keeps the whole train looking steady rather than lopsided. This idea pairs nicely with the quieter picnic drawing ideas for an afternoon of countryside pictures side by side.

Color each carriage a different bright color so the train reads as cheerful and varied rather than one long grey block.

Palette: Engine Red,Carriage Blue,Carriage Yellow,Grass Green

Slow back down to a quiet apple orchard, a scene built from a few round fruit trees in a row. Draw three or four trees across the page, each one a simple round or cloud-shaped top on a short straight trunk, then dot each treetop with several small red circles for apples.

A simple basket shape sitting on the ground beneath one tree, with a few more apple circles spilling out of it, adds a small story to the scene without extra steps. Rolling green ground and a plain blue sky with a sun finish the orchard.

Apples look best scattered rather than lined up: placing them at slightly different heights and distances apart across each treetop, rather than in neat rows, makes the fruit look like it grew there naturally. If red feels too strong for every apple, mixing in a few green or yellow ones among the red adds a nice bit of variety and still reads clearly as an orchard.

Draw the apples last, after the tree and basket outlines are already filled with green, so the red dots pop brightly against the leaves.

Palette: Apple Red,Leaf Green,Bark Brown,Basket Tan

Give the house-on-a-hill idea a grander twist with a castle standing on a hill instead. Draw the same curved hill shape from the very first idea, then build the castle from two or three tall rectangle towers of different heights, each one topped with a small triangle or a row of square notches for the battlements.

A single pointed flag on a thin pole sits atop the tallest tower, and a simple arched doorway, just a curved line meeting two short straight lines, sits at the base of the main tower. A few clouds and a sun in the sky, plus a winding path leading up the hill to the castle door, finish the scene.

Towers of very different heights can make the castle look unbalanced: keeping the tallest tower in the middle and the shorter ones on either side, the same trick used for the village of three houses earlier, keeps the whole castle looking steady and deliberate rather than accidental. Grey crayon works well for stone walls, but light purple is a fun swap for a castle that feels more like a fairy tale.

Add a single round window high on the tallest tower, since one small detail like that makes the whole castle feel far more lived-in.

Palette: Stone Grey,Flag Red,Grass Green,Sky Blue

Bring the scenery back down to earth with a cheerful playground, a scene full of simple geometric equipment. Draw a slide first, a triangle ramp leaning against a short ladder of straight rungs, then add a swing set beside it, just two straight posts meeting at a top bar with two swing seats hanging from short lines.

A round-topped roundabout, simply a circle with a few straight lines crossing through the middle like spokes, and a couple of simple tree shapes nearby fill out the space. A sandy ground color and a plain blue sky with a sun finish the playground.

Swing chains are the fiddliest part to keep even: drawing them as a single straight line on each side instead of a chain pattern keeps the swing looking tidy and still reads perfectly clearly as a swing. If a slide ramp looks too steep or too shallow once drawn, simply adjusting the angle of that one triangle line fixes it without needing to redraw anything else.

Add one or two simple stick-figure children playing on the equipment to give the whole scene some life and movement.

Palette: Slide Red,Swing Yellow,Sandy Tan,Sky Blue

Settle into a cozy campsite scene next, built around one tent and a small fire. Draw the tent as a simple triangle with a straight line down the middle for the entrance flap, then add a ring of small stones around a triangle campfire shape in front of it, with a few wavy orange and red lines rising up as flames.

A couple of pine trees made from stacked triangles stand nearby, and a simple log bench, just a long rectangle, sits beside the fire for marshmallow roasting. A night sky with a few star shapes and a round moon, or a plain daytime blue sky, works equally well behind the scene.

Campfire flames look most convincing when they are drawn as a few overlapping wavy shapes rather than one single pointed flame, since that layering is what makes fire look like it is flickering. If a night sky with stars feels like too many small shapes to draw, a simple daytime version with just a sun instead keeps the whole scene just as cozy with far less fiddly detail.

Add a tiny marshmallow on a stick held over the fire by a simple stick figure, a small detail that tells the whole story of the scene at a glance.

Palette: Tent Orange,Fire Red,Pine Green,Night Blue

Change the ground entirely with a desert scene full of simple cacti shapes. Draw the ground as one long flat or gently curving line of sandy color across the lower half of the page, then build two or three cactus shapes from a tall rounded rectangle body with two curved arms branching off to each side.

A simple round sun sitting low near the horizon, a few distant rounded hill shapes in the background, and a scattering of small rocks finish the scene. Short straight lines across each cactus, drawn lightly, suggest ridges without needing any real texture work.

Cactus arms often end up uneven in length on a first attempt: drawing one arm at a time and checking it against the height of the main body before adding the second arm keeps the whole shape looking balanced rather than lopsided. Bright poster paint makes the sandy ground glow nicely if that is on hand, but plain orange or tan crayon works just as well.

Try adding a tiny lizard or a single round tumbleweed shape rolling across the sand for a fun extra detail once the main cacti feel comfortable to draw.

Palette: Cactus Green,Desert Sand,Sunset Orange,Sky Blue

Build some real drama into the page with a waterfall tumbling down rocky cliffs. Draw two tall uneven rock shapes on either side of the page first, leaving a gap between them, then fill that gap with several long wavy vertical lines falling from the top of the gap down to a pool at the bottom.

A simple curved pool shape at the base of the waterfall, with a few ripple lines spreading out from where the water lands, and some green bushes or trees along the top of the cliffs finish the scene. A light mist, drawn as a few soft curved lines just above the pool, adds a nice extra touch.

Keep the falling water lines close together and all flowing in roughly the same downward direction, since that is what makes the water look like it is moving quickly rather than just sitting there as separate stripes. For a texture trick, dragging a slightly dry marker or crayon lightly down each water line, rather than pressing hard and solid, gives the water a softer, more flowing edge.

Vary this scene next time by making the waterfall narrower and taller for a dramatic version, or wide and short for a gentler one.

Palette: Rock Grey,Water Blue,White,Leaf Green

Fill the sky with color for a rainbow arching over a quiet meadow. Draw the rainbow first as a set of curved lines nested inside each other, like stacked smiles, starting from the outside with red and working inward through orange, yellow, green and blue.

Below the rainbow, a simple rolling meadow in green, dotted with a few small flowers, fills the lower half of the page, with a couple of fluffy clouds tucked at each end of the rainbow’s arch. A sun peeking out from behind one cloud finishes the cheerful mood.

Keeping an even gap between each curved rainbow line is the part most likely to wobble: drawing the outer red curve first, then tracing just inside it for orange and continuing inward one color at a time, keeps the bands even without needing to measure anything. If remembering the color order feels tricky, saying it out loud while drawing, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, makes it much easier to keep straight.

Leave a thin strip of white paper between each color band rather than letting them touch, which makes every stripe of the rainbow look clean and bright.

Palette: Rainbow Red,Rainbow Orange,Rainbow Yellow,Rainbow Green,Rainbow Blue

Finish with the most involved scene of the set, a treehouse tucked into an apple tree. Draw the tree trunk and a few thick branches first, then build a simple box-shaped treehouse sitting in the fork of the branches, with a small triangle roof and a round window.

Fill the tree’s top with the same rounded leaf shape used for the apple orchard earlier, dotting it with a few red apple circles, and add a rope ladder, two long parallel lines with short straight rungs between them, hanging down from the treehouse door to the ground. A grassy base with a few flowers finishes the scene.

This is the most parts to balance so far, which means drawing it slightly out of the usual order helps: sketch the trunk and branches first, then the treehouse box resting clearly on a branch, and only add the leafy top and apples last so the treehouse does not get lost once the leaves go in. If a round window feels fiddly, a simple square one works just as well and is easier to keep neat.

Finish by giving the treehouse a bright contrasting color against the green leaves, so it stands out as the clear focus of the whole tree.

Palette: Bark Brown,Leaf Green,Apple Red,Treehouse Blue

What to Do Next

Choose one scene that sounds the most fun right now, set out a sheet of plain white paper, and work through the shapes in order from the first big hill or box to the last bit of color. There is always another idea on this list waiting for tomorrow.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the easiest scenery drawing for kids to start with?

A house on a hill with the sun is the easiest, since it uses only basic shapes like a square, a triangle and a circle that most children already know how to draw confidently.

What materials work best for scenery drawing for kids?

Plain white paper, a thick black marker for outlines and washable crayons or markers for filling in color work best, since the bold outline keeps the colors contained even if a child colors outside the lines.

How do you teach a child to draw a background without it looking empty?

Keep the background to just a few large shapes, like a curved hill, a plain sky color and one sun or cloud, rather than adding lots of small details that can make the page feel cluttered instead of full.

Should a child draw in pencil first or go straight to marker?

A light pencil sketch first is a good habit, since it lets shapes be erased and adjusted before the final black marker outline goes down permanently over the top.

How long should a scenery drawing take a child to finish?

Most of these scenes take between ten and forty minutes depending on how much detail gets added, which makes them easy to finish in one sitting without losing interest halfway through.