Europe · Eastern Europe
How to draw Bulgaria from memory
Bulgaria is a single continuous landmass, roughly as wide as it is tall. Lock that proportion in before you worry about any individual stretch of border. Its border is simple by world standards, which makes it a good place to build confidence — and also means a low score here has nowhere to hide.
- Difficulty
- easy
- Population
- 7.0 m
- Code
- BGR
- Attempts
- 289
- Avg score
- 67
- Best
- 78
Draw Bulgaria
Practice · draw from memory
Bulgaria
A four-step strategy for Bulgaria
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. Bulgaria is close to square overall, so a lopsided sketch loses points fast.
- 02
Anchor one unmistakable feature — the straightest border section or the sharpest cape — and draw outward from it in a single continuous stroke.
- 03
Close the loop back to where you started. An open shape gets filled unpredictably and drags your score down.
- 04
Submit, read the nine-sector grid, and redraw immediately. The sector readout names the region you under-drew, and a second attempt typically gains 10–20 points.
AmberBison
TealRavenQuick facts
- Continent
- Europe
- Subregion
- Eastern Europe
- Outline pieces
- 1
- Detail score
- 2.21
Three things that go wrong when people sketch Bulgaria
Each one is measured off the outline the game scores, not copied from a reference atlas: the proportions, the straight sections and the way the shape breaks into pieces are all properties of the coordinates your stroke gets compared against.
Bulgaria is wider than it is tall
The finished outline holds a ratio of about 1.53 to 1, a horizontal shape. Most failed attempts come from defaulting to a squarish blob — and unlike position, aspect ratio is never normalised away by the scorer.
Close the loop before adding detail
Bulgaria occupies a 440×288 unit box on the game canvas. Fill that box with one continuous closed stroke first: the scorer compares filled area, so an open outline loses the interior it never enclosed.
Draw it bigger than feels natural
Position and size are normalised away before scoring, so a large sketch of Bulgaria costs nothing and buys finer control over each turn of the coast.
Answer key: the real shape of Bulgaria
- Box on the canvas
- 440 × 288 units
- Width to height
- 1.53 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 1
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 1.31× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn Bulgaria at least once. Seeing the shape first replaces the recall the score is meant to measure with tracing, and tracing always scores higher than remembering.
Why Bulgaria is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of Bulgaria. It scales and centres both your stroke and the real border into the same box, fills them, and measures how much of the two shapes overlap relative to their combined area. That means you are never punished for drawing Bulgaria small, off to one side, or rotated slightly — only for getting the shape itself wrong. The nine-sector grid then splits the real border into a 3×3 mesh and reports coverage per cell, which is how it can tell you that you lost the whole eastern edge rather than just handing you a number.
Bulgaria by the numbers
Bulgaria covers 110,879 km², which makes it the 103rd largest of 190 countries in the game and the 15th largest in Europe. The capital is Sofia at about 43°N, 25°E, and it sits in Eastern Europe. It touches Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey, and 100% of its area sits in one main landmass. The rest of the perimeter is water.
Next to Bulgaria: its land neighbours
Size is what the outline has to fill, so comparing the countries that share this border side by side is the fastest way to get the proportions into your head before you draw.
| Country | Area | Population | Capital | Pieces | vs Bulgaria |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulgariathis page | 110,879 km² | 7.0 m | Sofia | 1 | — |
 Greece | 131,990 km² | 10.7 m | Athens | 3 | 1.19× |
 North Macedonia | 25,713 km² | 2.1 m | Skopje | 1 | 0.23× |
 Romania | 238,391 km² | 19.4 m | Bucharest | 1 | 2.15× |
 Serbia | 88,361 km² | 6.9 m | Belgrade | 1 | 0.8× |
 Turkey | 783,562 km² | 83.4 m | Ankara | 2 | 7.07× |
Draw these next
Countries near Bulgaria share border conventions and coastline styles, which makes them the most useful follow-up practice.
Working through one country at a time is slow. Take the blank map of europe and label the whole region from memory — it shows you which neighbours you have never actually seen.
Bulgaria drawing questions
How big is Bulgaria?
Bulgaria covers 110,879 km², ranking 103rd of 190 countries here by land area and 15th in Europe. About 14% of the area of Turkey.
What is the capital of Bulgaria?
The capital is Sofia at about 43°N, 25°E. The game scores the shape of the border rather than the position of any city, so the capital and its coordinates are here to help you place Bulgaria on a blank map.
Is Bulgaria hard to draw?
It is rated easy, and carries more outline detail than 32% of the 190 borders in this game. The shape has to be placed as 1 landmass, with no straight edge longer than 8% of the perimeter to anchor it.
Which countries border Bulgaria?
Bulgaria shares a land border with Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. The remaining perimeter is coast, which is the part that usually costs points.