Asia · South-Eastern Asia
How to draw Laos from memory
Laos 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. 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
- 7.2 m
- Code
- LAO
- Attempts
- 429
- Avg score
- 53
- Best
- 53
Draw Laos
Practice · draw from memory
Laos
A four-step strategy for Laos
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. Laos 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.
OlivePumaQuick facts
- Continent
- Asia
- Subregion
- South-Eastern Asia
- Outline pieces
- 1
- Detail score
- 4.89
Three things that go wrong when people sketch Laos
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.
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 1.64× 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.
Both ends are pinched
The widest slice across the centre is 2.1× broader than either the northern or the southern edge. Place the two narrow ends early and the bulge between them cannot come out wrong.
Laos is close to square
Width against height comes out at 0.83 to 1, so the shape neither runs away sideways nor stretches vertically. Set that box first: with a near-square country almost every lost point comes from the coast detail inside it, not the footprint.
Answer key: the real shape of Laos
- Box on the canvas
- 367 × 440 units
- Width to height
- 0.83 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 1
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 1.64× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn Laos 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 Laos is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of Laos. 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 Laos 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.
Laos by the numbers
Laos covers 236,800 km², which makes it the 81st largest of 190 countries in the game and the 21st largest in Asia. The capital is Vientiane at about 18°N, 105°E, and it sits in South-Eastern Asia. It touches Myanmar, Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam, and 100% of its area sits in one main landmass. Being landlocked, there is no sea edge to help you orient it.
Next to Laos: 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 Laos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laosthis page | 236,800 km² | 7.2 m | Vientiane | 1 | — |
 Myanmar | 676,578 km² | 54.0 m | Naypyidaw | 1 | 2.86× |
 Cambodia | 181,035 km² | 16.5 m | Phnom Penh | 1 | 0.76× |
 China | 9,706,961 km² | 1.40 bn | Beijing | 1 | 41× |
 Thailand | 513,120 km² | 69.6 m | Bangkok | 1 | 2.17× |
 Vietnam | 331,212 km² | 96.5 m | Hanoi | 1 | 1.4× |
Draw these next
Countries near Laos 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 asia and label the whole region from memory — it shows you which neighbours you have never actually seen.
Laos drawing questions
How big is Laos?
Laos covers 236,800 km², ranking 81st of 190 countries here by land area and 21st in Asia. Small enough to lie inside a square roughly 486.6 km on a side.
What is the capital of Laos?
The capital is Vientiane at about 18°N, 105°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 Laos on a blank map.
Is Laos hard to draw?
It is rated hard, and carries more outline detail than 77% 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 Laos?
Laos shares a land border with Myanmar, Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam, so the entire outline is made of these frontiers.