Africa · Western Africa
How to draw Sierra Leone from memory
Sierra Leone 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
- 7.8 m
- Code
- SLE
- Attempts
- 470
- Avg score
- 84
- Best
- 84
Draw Sierra Leone
Practice · draw from memory
Sierra Leone
A four-step strategy for Sierra Leone
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. Sierra Leone 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.
Ch1cken_WingQuick facts
- Continent
- Africa
- Subregion
- Western Africa
- Outline pieces
- 1
- Detail score
- 1.86
Three things that go wrong when people sketch Sierra Leone
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.
Both ends are pinched
The widest slice across the centre is 1.8× broader than either the northern or the southern edge. Place the two narrow ends early and the bulge between them cannot come out wrong.
Sierra Leone is close to square
Width against height comes out at 0.96 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.
Close the loop before adding detail
Sierra Leone occupies a 424×440 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.
Answer key: the real shape of Sierra Leone
- Box on the canvas
- 424 × 440 units
- Width to height
- 0.96 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 1
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 1.35× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn Sierra Leone 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 Sierra Leone is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of Sierra Leone. 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 Sierra Leone 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.
Sierra Leone by the numbers
Sierra Leone covers 71,740 km², which makes it the 116th largest of 190 countries in the game and the 41st largest in Africa. The capital is Freetown at about 9°N, 12°W, and it sits in Western Africa. It touches Guinea and Liberia, and 100% of its area sits in one main landmass. The rest of the perimeter is water.
Next to Sierra Leone: 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 Sierra Leone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sierra Leonethis page | 71,740 km² | 7.8 m | Freetown | 1 | — |
 Guinea | 245,857 km² | 12.8 m | Conakry | 1 | 3.43× |
 Liberia | 111,369 km² | 4.9 m | Monrovia | 1 | 1.55× |
Draw these next
Countries near Sierra Leone 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.
Sierra Leone drawing questions
How big is Sierra Leone?
Sierra Leone covers 71,740 km², ranking 116th of 190 countries here by land area and 41st in Africa. About 29% of the area of Guinea.
What is the capital of Sierra Leone?
The capital is Freetown at about 9°N, 12°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 Sierra Leone on a blank map.
Is Sierra Leone hard to draw?
It is rated easy, and carries more outline detail than 20% 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 Sierra Leone?
Sierra Leone shares a land border with Guinea and Liberia. The remaining perimeter is coast, which is the part that usually costs points.