How to Draw a Roof: Tiles, Shingles & Realistic Texture

By Carol Leather

Before we go further into learning how to draw a roof in coloured pencils, let me ask you a question.

Have you ever looked up at the roof of a house as you walk by? As an artist creating landscapes you will likely find it an interesting exercise. The sheer variety of types, materials, shapes and colours is astounding, and each have their own challenges when it comes to drawing them.

Learning how to draw a roof with tiles (or shingles) is different from a thatched roof, for example. Oh, and did you know that roofs in different countries can differ for quite sensible reasons when you think about them?

Let's start with tiles.

Drawing different kinds of roof tiles

Take a look at the following six photographs.

As you will have seen from the photographs above, tiles on one roof may look nothing like tiles on another.

Obviously the colours differ, but look at the lines between them. The first photo of a modern roof shows tiles that are evenly spaced and arranged in lines (although the bottom edges have a distinctive shape). The Mediterranean tiles are different shapes, with hardly a straight line in sight.

The quarried tiles vary in shape too but don't have straight edges. The clay tiles would have been laid in straight lines originally, but some have shifted and others have fallen off.

How perspective affects roof tiles

Now can you see how getting those "lines of perspective" when learning how to draw a roof can be more difficult than you may have first thought?

If perspective feels like the tricky part, it is worth spending a little time on it away from roofs first. My guide to basic perspective drawing covers the groundwork, and because a roof needs two vanishing points, two-point perspective is the one to get really comfortable with.

Although I can't give you instructions for how to draw a roof that will apply to every type of material you might encounter, I can offer a guide on how to approach drawing roof tiles in terms of their proportions and perspective.

The first thing to consider is that a roof has tiles which appear larger the closer they are to the viewer and smaller the further they are away. This is a natural law of perspective. Tiles, therefore, obey perspective in two directions.

In the sketch here, you will see that there are two 'vanishing points':

• a horizontal one on to the right at 'A', where the horizontal lines of the roof would vanish if they continued to the distance,
• and the much further away vanishing point at B, up in the sky, where the sloping surfaces would similarly disappear from sight if they went high enough.

As you will see, I have halved the vertical height of the roof and then marked the quarter points. I have then sketched in a single tile at each corner: upper right at C and lower left at D. These are in proportion to the scale of the roof and you can readily see how much larger the left hand and nearer tile is compared to the upper right hand one.

Working out how many rows of tiles to draw

We give an impression of the tiles, making sure that they obey the basic laws of perspective.

Depending on the type of tiles and the height and slope of the roof, there will be a given number of rows of tiles, but we don't need to go there. Our picture simply needs to give a close approximation of those rows.

Provided we get the shape of the roof correct, and observe the way the lines of tiles run, we can take a section of roof and mark half way spots along the roof edge, then halve those sections and then halve again. As in the sketch below, the tiles will then observe correct proportion.

Have a rough count of the actual number of rows of tiles and judge how to approach the task.

In the study above, I have shown there to be 8 rows of tiles. In fact there were many more, so your next option here would be 16 rows (by halving the spaces shown above).

If you measure 3 equal spaces at each end of the roof when you start, instead of two, and then halve those spaces and halve again, you will finish up with 12 rows (or 24). In fact you will probably only need to show an overall indication of the individual tiles, so the essential ones are those nearer to the viewer, in the bottom right hand corner. Horizontal shadow lines and the colour and shading will then tell the viewer that he (or she) is looking at a tiled roof.

Roof tiles around the world

If we are looking at shaped tiles, as in this tiled barn in Somerset UK (above), then there will be clearer shadow lines, which in the case of the image below will show a ripple effect where they overlap. Make sure that your colours show the vertical shapes, as you can see here in the whites and reds.

In French Provence and other warmer climates, more unique shapes to tiles can mean that your shadow lines can run in both directions. See the pictures below.

In more northern countries, such as Tallinn in Estonia (below), the hard winters mean that roofs need to be steeper to shed snow more easily. So they tend to have more rows of tiles, which are similarly 'U' shaped to provide a double layer of protection, this time from the cold rather than the heat.

Colour and shading for a tiled roof

To sum up, when learning how to draw a roof, take some care in working out the approximate number of rows of tiles you need. Then give an impression of the shape of the nearest tiles and the way the sizes and shapes change with perspective.

Put down a pattern in a dark or cool colour to show the shadow areas, then look at the overall colour the roof will display. That colour is important, so get a base coat down over the shadow pattern.

Next, work with the roof in a similar way to the approach you would use with fur on an animal. Keep your strokes going in the direction the tiles are laid. Keep the pencil strokes light and observe any areas where the roof shows up as being much lighter, as in that picture of the Somerset barn.

Snow is worth a mention here too. We saw those steep Estonian roofs built to shed it a moment ago, but when snow does settle on the tiles it is a lovely reminder that the overall colour matters more than you might expect.

You would think a snowy roof should read as pure white, yet it almost never does. Snow borrows its colour from the sky and the light around it: cool blues and soft greys where it lies in shadow, a hint of warmth where a low sun catches it.

It is the same lesson as what colour a shadow really is, hardly ever plain grey and never simply the absence of light. Save your white paper or white pencil for the very brightest edges, and let those quiet, cool greys do most of the work.

And above all, don't get stressed about doing every tile.

Drawing solar panels on a roof

Roofs have changed since I first started drawing them. A modern house often has solar panels covering much of one slope now, and if you are drawing a present-day street or building you may want to include them.

It is your choice. Leave them off for a timeless country look, or put them in to root the scene firmly in the present. Both are perfectly valid.

If you do draw them, the good news is that the perspective is exactly the same as for tiles. The panels sit in a flat block, usually one or two rectangles, and they follow the same two vanishing points as the roof beneath. Get the shape of the block right first, then divide it into panels, halving and halving again just as you did with the rows of tiles.

Colour is where panels differ. They are much darker than tiles, a deep blue-black or charcoal, and they are slightly reflective, so they pick up the colour of the sky.

Put down a cool dark base, then add a hint of lighter, cooler reflection where the sky catches them. Keep any sheen soft, because a mirror-bright panel will look wrong.

Finally, suggest the thin metal frames between the panels with a light, regular grid, strongest on the panels nearest the viewer. The panels usually sit a little proud of the tiles too, so a fine shadow line along one edge helps them sit on the roof rather than float above it.

How to draw roof shingles

You will notice I have not shown you a photo of my own here, and there is a reason for that. We do not see many shingle roofs in the UK. Our damp, changeable climate is not kind to them, so wooden shingles weather and deteriorate far more quickly here than in the drier, more settled places they suit. They are rare on British houses, and I simply do not have one on my doorstep to photograph.

If you live somewhere they are common, though, such as North America, Scandinavia or the alpine regions, they are well worth knowing how to draw. Shingles are usually wood, although you will also see slate and asphalt versions, and the key thing is that they are flatter and more regular than the rippled clay pantiles we looked at earlier. They are laid in neat overlapping courses, row upon row.

Because they lie so flat, you get far less of the deep shadow line you saw on the shaped tiles. Instead, draw them as gentle horizontal bands of tone, one course above the next, with just a little variation from shingle to shingle so they do not look mechanical. Keep the crispest detail nearest the viewer and let the courses soften into the distance, exactly as you would with tiles. Wooden shingles also silver and grey as they weather, so watch the colour rather than reaching for a flat brown.

How to draw a thatched roof

Quaint English landscape paintings from the past often incorporated a house with a thatched roof, and you might like to learn how to draw a roof of this type.

Thatch can be created with reed or straw. The finished roof can look superb, keeping the occupants warm in winter and cool in summer. However, if not maintained, it can be attacked by birds and vermin for building materials.

For those of you who are outside the UK, thatch used to be common in England as well as in Brittany and Normandy in France. I have also seen thatch used in Scandinavia.

Thatch can still be seen on old cottage properties in rural England, although many thatched roofs have been replaced with modern roofing materials due to the fire risk.

As you will see from the above images, thatch changes colour over time.

Be careful when drawing buildings with thatched roofs to ensure that the grain of the fibres is observed. Also note that thatch often overhangs windows and gives a much darker edge to your roofline.

Thatch is laid in layers and the top layer is laid to shed rain, with a top line along the crown of the roof often laid in a pattern. Thatched cottages often have chimneys separated from the roof to keep the risk of fire down. Irish and Scottish thatch is often seen with solid end walls, as shown below.

Older and weathered roofs

Not every roof you will want to draw is neat and new. Some of the most rewarding roofs are the old ones: a barn, a shed, a cottage that has stood for a couple of hundred years. Age is what gives them character, and character is what makes them worth drawing.

Look for the things that a new roof does not have. Moss and lichen break the colour into soft patches of green, grey and gold, usually heaviest on the shaded, damp side.

Ridge lines dip and sag where the timbers beneath have shifted, so the straight lines you worked so hard to get right on a new roof are gently broken here. On a really old building, ivy and self-seeded plants take hold and start to reclaim the roof altogether.

The trick when drawing them is to relax. On a weathered roof you are not trying to place every tile in a tidy grid; you are describing stains, dips and irregularity. Put the roof shape and perspective down first, exactly as before, then let the surface be as broken and varied as your reference shows.

Different materials age in their own way. A corrugated-iron barn rusts to lovely warm oranges and browns, and the regular ripple of the sheeting catches the light much like a row of tiles. Draw the rust as soft patches of colour rather than hard lines, and keep the ripple going in the direction of the slope.

How to draw a chimney

One feature we have not mentioned yet is the chimney, and it is worth a little care. It is often the tallest thing on the roof, so the eye goes straight to it. Get it leaning or out of perspective and the whole building looks unsteady.

A chimney is really just a tall brick or rendered box rising up through the slope. Its vertical sides stay vertical, while the top and any banding of bricks follow the same horizontal vanishing point as the rest of the roof. Check those verticals with your pencil held upright, because a chimney that leans is the most common mistake.

The pots on top are worth a moment too. They come in wonderful shapes, from plain clay cylinders to crowned and castellated tops, and they say a great deal about the age and character of a building. A row of them catches the light beautifully, so draw them with a little care rather than as plain tubes.

Because the roof slopes and the chimney stands upright, it meets the tiles at a different height at the front than at the back. That join, with its strip of lead flashing, is worth observing rather than guessing.

For the brickwork itself, treat it as a small wall and suggest the bricks the same way you would when drawing buildings, rather than drawing every one.

Last of all, remember the shadow. A chimney casts a clear shadow across the roof slope, and that shadow is what grounds it and gives your roof real depth. Look at your reference photo to see which way it falls.

I hope this page has given you an introduction to how to draw a roof on a building.

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