North America · Northern America
How to draw Canada from memory
Canada is not one shape but 8 — an archipelago. Draw the largest landmass first and treat the rest as satellites, because a handful of missed islets costs far less than getting the main island wrong. It ranks among the hardest countries to draw: the border carries far more detail than a freehand stroke can capture, so anything above 50 is a strong result.
- Difficulty
- hard
- Population
- 37.6 m
- Code
- CAN
Draw Canada
Practice · draw from memory
Canada
A four-step strategy for Canada
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. Canada 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
Finish the main landmass completely, then add the remaining 7 pieces as separate strokes. Scoring counts total covered area, so an unclosed island can hurt more than a missing one.
- 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.
Top scores for Canada
Nobody has submitted a score for Canada yet. Draw it above and you are first on this board.
Full leaderboard →Quick facts
- Continent
- North America
- Subregion
- Northern America
- Outline pieces
- 8
- Detail score
- 13.21
Three things that go wrong when people sketch Canada
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.
35% of the country is not the mainland
The outline is made of 8 separate pieces, and the largest one carries only 65% of the area. Sketched without the rest, the shape is short by that much even when the mainland is perfect — place the outlying piece first, then draw the mainland around it.
Not one straight edge to anchor the shape
The longest unbroken run in the whole outline is under 8% of the perimeter, and the coast folds back 2.15× on the smooth ring that would wrap it. Choose two deep inlets and one sharp promontory as anchors, and let everything between them stay approximate.
It narrows sharply toward the south
Measured across, the outline is 4.2× wider near its northern edge than near its southern one. A sketch that keeps the same width all the way down looks plausible and scores badly, because a missing taper is missing area.
Answer key: the real shape of Canada
- Box on the canvas
- 326 × 439 units
- Width to height
- 0.74 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 8
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 2.15× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn Canada 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 Canada is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of Canada. 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 Canada 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 coastline rather than just handing you a number.
Canada by the numbers
Canada covers 9,984,670 km², which makes it the 2nd largest of 190 countries in the game and the 1st largest in North America. The capital is Ottawa at about 60°N, 95°W, and it sits in Northern America. It touches United States, and 65% of its area sits in one main landmass. The rest of the perimeter is water.
Next to Canada: 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 Canada |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canadathis page | 9,984,670 km² | 37.6 m | Ottawa | 8 | — |
 United States | 9,372,610 km² | 328.2 m | Washington D.C. | 2 | 0.94× |
Draw these next
Countries near Canada 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 north america and label the whole region from memory — it shows you which neighbours you have never actually seen.
Canada drawing questions
How big is Canada?
Canada covers 9,984,670 km², ranking 2nd of 190 countries here by land area and 1st in North America. That is 1.1 times the area of United States.
What is the capital of Canada?
The capital is Ottawa at about 60°N, 95°W. 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 Canada on a blank map.
Is Canada hard to draw?
It is rated hard, and carries more outline detail than 95% of the 190 borders in this game. The shape has to be placed as 8 landmasses, with no straight edge longer than 8% of the perimeter to anchor it.
Which countries border Canada?
Canada shares a land border with United States. The remaining perimeter is coast, which is the part that usually costs points.