How to Draw a Monorail | Simple Guide

Today we are going to learn how to draw a monorail. It will be as easy as drawing a smiley face, and the results will be amazing. So grab your pencil and crayons so we can create a monorail and have fun together.

The monorail is a railway in which the track is made up of a single rail instead of having two tracks like most trains. The term monorail is commonly used to describe forms of elevated rail or vehicles moving on a monorail. In our guide, however, we will refer to both the track and the vehicle.

What You Will Need

• A pencil
• A ruler
• An eraser
• A piece of drawing paper
• Coloring supplies

How to Draw a Monorail

The first monorail prototype was made in Russia back in 1820. The objective was to create an alternative to the conventional railways. Today, the designs have improved, and monorails are among the safest modes of transport. Japan has the most monorails.

To make it easy for you to grasp the concept of drawing a monorail, we will draw a very simple vehicle using the below steps.

Step 1: Draw the Main Body

A monorail can have multiple cars, with a single carriage carrying 18 seated and 142 standing passengers. We will draw a smaller vehicle with just two carriages in our drawing.

We first need to draw two rectangles in the middle of our drawing paper to draw the monorail. The two rectangles should be the same height, with the first being longer than the second. Separate the rectangles with a small gap between them.

Next, since the longer rectangle will serve as the front of the vehicle, we are going to make the front part slanted. To do so, we will start by adding a diagonal line that starts at the bottom left corner and rises diagonally, slightly into the rectangle. We are then going to erase the part of the rectangle that sits to the left of the diagonal line. We then need to make the top left and bottom left corners rounded. You should have something that looks like this.

Step 2: Draw the Housing for the Wheels

A monorail vehicle seems to have no wheels. This is because they are enclosed around the bottom part of the vehicle. The vehicle is stable because it has a setup of wheels that fit around the rail. This makes it hard for the vehicle to topple.

With that in mind, we are going to add the bottom part of the vehicle that houses the wheels. For this, we will start by drawing a rectangle over the body of the monorail. We will make the bottom section a bit curved in the front part. You should now have something that looks like this.

Step 3: Draw the Chassis

Every vehicle needs a chassis to support the weight of the vehicle and everything that it carries. Without a strong chassis, the bottom of a vehicle would cave. For that reason, we are going to add this essential structure to our monorail.

Adding a chassis only requires drawing a single straight line on the bottom part of the monorail’s body. The line should not leave too much space between the bottom part and the body. It should also not be too wide so that passengers don’t have any trouble climbing into and out of the monorail.

Step 4: Draw the Front Window

While it moves on a set rail, a monorail still needs a conductor to control it. The conductor controls the speeds and stops the vehicle when an obstruction is ahead. The conductor also determines when the vehicle closes the doors. For that reason, the conductor needs a big window to be able to see in front and what is around him.

Draw two parallel lines starting from the front end of the monorail and stopping about a quarter into the front carriage. Connect the two parallel lines with a vertical line to form the front window. We will make the corners a bit rounded to give our windows a modern look.

Make sure the lines don’t overlap. Use your eraser to remove any lines that cross each other. The monorail will not look very impressive if there are lines that are spilling over.

Step 5: Draw the Passenger Windows

The next part is adding windows to the carriage’s other parts. The windows not only let natural light in, but they also help with ventilation and help the passengers to soak up the impressive view from the elevated position of the monorail.

You might be tempted to add freehand windows, one at a time. That would be a bad idea. The windows need to be in the same vertical position and of the same size. Drawing them freehand will make it hard to achieve this.  

To draw the windows, start by placing your ruler on the top line of the front window and draw a soft line starting from the top of the front window to the rear of the vehicle. Next, move the ruler down to almost align with the bottom of the front window and add another soft line from the front window to the rear. The second line must be parallel to the first one. The two soft lines will give us the outline for the height of the windows, thus making it easier to add the windows.

Simply draw a pair of vertical lines along the two parallel lines to form the windows. Make sure you leave a small space between the windows. You should then use your ruler to draw the top and bottom of the windows then erase the soft lines we drew earlier. Your monorail should look something like this.

Try to make the windows’ edges a bit rounded for a more modern and stylized look.

Step 6: Refine Your Drawing

Our monorail is ready. That was fast, right?

What you need to do now is refine your drawing. If there are any lines that are overlapping, get rid of them. If any of the areas of your vehicle are not as good-looking, erase and redo them.

Take your monorail Drawing to the Next Level

We cannot afford to leave our drawing as it is. If we do, it will look like an abandoned, funny-looking bus. We need to add more details to our drawing to transform it into a monorail.

Add the Monorail

The one thing you cannot afford not to add to your drawing is the rail. Without the rail, the vehicle will be quite confusing, mostly because it has no visible wheels. You also need to remember that a monorail moves on an elevated platform.

To add the rail, we will draw a horizontal rectangular shape below the vehicle. The top line of the rectangle should be at the same level as the chassis, whereas the bottom line should be below the bottom part of the vehicle, as shown in the below image.

We will add a couple of support beams below the rail to indicate that the vehicle is on an elevated platform. We will do that using vertical rectangles.

These are not the only details you should add to your drawing. You can do more, such as adding your name on the side of the vehicle, adding some bushes between the support beams, and some clouds above the vehicle. You are only limited by your imagination, so go wild.

Color Your Drawing

We now need to add color to our monorail. Use different colors to distinguish the different parts of the monorail. In our drawing, we used grey for the rail and support beams, navy blue for the body of the vehicle, light blue for the windows, and red for the chassis.

Do not be afraid to think outside the box. Use any color combination that you want. However, you must ensure that the colors don’t spill outside the areas you are coloring.

Conclusion

The monorail is probably the easiest drawing you ever did, right? We mostly used rectangular shapes to create the vehicle. We started by drawing the body of the train and added the bottom part, the chassis, the windows, and the rail platform.

Practice is the key to becoming a good artist. Never forget that, and always have fun. We hope you enjoyed drawing a monorail with us 🙂

Thanks for reading & feel free to check out more of our articles!