Europe · Northern Europe
How to draw Norway from memory
Norway comes in 4 separate pieces on the map. The main body is roughly as wide as it is tall; sketch that first, then place the smaller pieces relative to it. 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
- 5.3 m
- Code
- NOR
- Attempts
- 450
- Avg score
- 10
- Best
- 10
Draw Norway
Practice · draw from memory
Norway
A four-step strategy for Norway
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. Norway 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 3 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.
Quick facts
- Continent
- Europe
- Subregion
- Northern Europe
- Outline pieces
- 4
- Detail score
- 23.39
Three things that go wrong when people sketch Norway
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.
50% of the country is not the mainland
The outline is made of 4 separate pieces, and the largest one carries only 50% 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 1.98× 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.
Norway is taller than it is wide
The finished outline holds a ratio of about 0.37 to 1, a vertical shape. Most failed attempts come from defaulting to a squarish blob — and unlike position, aspect ratio is never normalised away by the scorer.
Answer key: the real shape of Norway
- Box on the canvas
- 161 × 439 units
- Width to height
- 0.37 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 4
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 1.98× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn Norway 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 Norway is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of Norway. 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 Norway 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.
Norway by the numbers
Norway covers 323,802 km², which makes it the 67th largest of 190 countries in the game and the 8th largest in Europe. The capital is Oslo at about 62°N, 10°E, and it sits in Northern Europe. It touches Finland, Sweden and Russia, and 50% of its area sits in one main landmass. The rest of the perimeter is water.
Next to Norway: 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 Norway |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwaythis page | 323,802 km² | 5.3 m | Oslo | 4 | — |
 Finland | 338,424 km² | 5.5 m | Helsinki | 1 | 1.05× |
 Sweden | 450,295 km² | 10.3 m | Stockholm | 1 | 1.39× |
 Russia | 17,098,242 km² | 144.4 m | Moscow | 1 | 53× |
Draw these next
Countries near Norway 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.
Norway drawing questions
How big is Norway?
Norway covers 323,802 km², ranking 67th of 190 countries here by land area and 8th in Europe. Small enough to lie inside a square roughly 569.0 km on a side.
What is the capital of Norway?
The capital is Oslo at about 62°N, 10°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 Norway on a blank map.
Is Norway hard to draw?
It is rated hard, and carries more outline detail than 100% of the 190 borders in this game. The shape has to be placed as 4 landmasses, with no straight edge longer than 8% of the perimeter to anchor it.
Which countries border Norway?
Norway shares a land border with Finland, Sweden and Russia. The remaining perimeter is coast, which is the part that usually costs points.