Europe · Western Europe
How to draw Switzerland from memory
Switzerland 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 sits in the middle of the difficulty range — enough straight sections to anchor you, enough detail to punish a careless stroke.
- Difficulty
- medium
- Population
- 8.6 m
- Code
- CHE
Draw Switzerland
Practice · draw from memory
Switzerland
A four-step strategy for Switzerland
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. Switzerland 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.
Top scores for Switzerland
Nobody has submitted a score for Switzerland yet. Draw it above and you are first on this board.
Full leaderboard →Quick facts
- Continent
- Europe
- Subregion
- Western Europe
- Outline pieces
- 1
- Detail score
- 3.06
Three things that go wrong when people sketch Switzerland
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 1.9× broader than either the northern or the southern edge. Place the two narrow ends early and the bulge between them cannot come out wrong.
Switzerland is wider than it is tall
The finished outline holds a ratio of about 1.58 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
Switzerland occupies a 440×279 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 Switzerland
- Box on the canvas
- 440 × 279 units
- Width to height
- 1.58 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 1
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 1.43× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn Switzerland 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 Switzerland is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of Switzerland. 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 Switzerland 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.
Switzerland by the numbers
Switzerland covers 41,284 km², which makes it the 131st largest of 190 countries in the game and the 31st largest in Europe. The capital is Bern at about 47°N, 8°E, and it sits in Western Europe. It touches Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein and Germany, and 100% of its area sits in one main landmass. Being landlocked, there is no sea edge to help you orient it.
Next to Switzerland: 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 Switzerland |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerlandthis page | 41,284 km² | 8.6 m | Bern | 1 | — |
 Austria | 83,871 km² | 8.9 m | Vienna | 1 | 2.03× |
 France | 551,695 km² | 67.1 m | Paris | 2 | 13× |
 Italy | 301,336 km² | 60.3 m | Rome | 3 | 7.3× |
 Liechtenstein | 160 km² | 38 k | Vaduz | 1 | <0.01× |
 Germany | 357,114 km² | 83.1 m | Berlin | 1 | 8.65× |
Draw these next
Countries near Switzerland 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.
Switzerland drawing questions
How big is Switzerland?
Switzerland covers 41,284 km², ranking 131st of 190 countries here by land area and 31st in Europe. About 7% of the area of France.
What is the capital of Switzerland?
The capital is Bern at about 47°N, 8°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 Switzerland on a blank map.
Is Switzerland hard to draw?
It is rated medium, and carries more outline detail than 58% 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 Switzerland?
Switzerland shares a land border with Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein and Germany, so the entire outline is made of these frontiers.