How to draw Central African Republic from memory

Three things that go wrong when people sketch Central African Republic

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.

• It narrows sharply toward the south

  Measured across, the outline is 2.5× 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.

• Central African Republic is wider than it is tall

  The finished outline holds a ratio of about 1.47 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

  Central African Republic occupies a 440×298 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.

Why Central African Republic is scored this way

Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of Central African Republic. 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 Central African Republic 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.

Central African Republic by the numbers

Central African Republic covers 622,984 km², which makes it the 41st largest of 190 countries in the game and the 19th largest in Africa. The capital is Bangui at about 7°N, 21°E, and it sits in Middle Africa. It touches Cameroon, Chad, DR Congo, Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Sudan, and 100% of its area sits in one main landmass. Being landlocked, there is no sea edge to help you orient it.

Next to Central African Republic: 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.

Central African Republic compared with its land neighbours: area, population, capital and the number of separate outlines the game fills

Country	Area	Population	Capital	Pieces	vs Central African Republic
Central African Republicthis page	622,984 km²	4.7 m	Bangui	1	—
Cameroon	475,442 km²	25.9 m	Yaoundé	1	0.76×
Chad	1,284,000 km²	15.9 m	N'Djamena	1	2.06×
DR Congo	2,344,858 km²	86.8 m	Kinshasa	1	3.76×
Republic of the Congo	342,000 km²	5.4 m	Brazzaville	1	0.55×
South Sudan	619,745 km²	11.1 m	Juba	1	0.99×
Sudan	1,886,068 km²	42.8 m	Khartoum	1	3.03×

Draw these next

Countries near Central African Republic 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 africa and label the whole region from memory — it shows you which neighbours you have never actually seen.

Central African Republic drawing questions