Norway is the outline that humbles confident drawers. Nobody forgets it is long; everybody forgets how violently the west coast shatters into fjords.
The shape at a glance
Norway is an extremely long, narrow arc hugging the western edge of the Scandinavian peninsula, taller than Sweden and thinner on average. The south is a blunt rounded head around Oslo, the middle a skinny waist, and the north widens into the Finnmark lobe that curls east over Finland. The entire west coast is serrated by deep fjords, with Lofoten's island fringe hanging offshore.
Step by step
- Start with a very tall, very narrow frame leaning slightly — Norway runs from south-southwest to north-northeast.
- Draw the blunt southern head: a rounded bulge around Oslo with a deep notch for the Oslofjord.
- Pull a thin waist north along the Swedish border, keeping the country narrow past Trondheim.
- Shatter the west edge with short deep notches — the fjords around Bergen and the northwest coast.
- Widen the north into the Finnmark lobe that swings east over the top of Finland toward the Russian border at Varanger.
- Fringe the northwest with the Lofoten island chain, a small archipelago hanging off the coast like dripping paint.
Mistakes that cost you points
- Drawing a smooth west coast, when the fjord serration is Norway's entire identity.
- Making it too wide — most of Norway is a thin strip over the mountains from Sweden.
- Ending the north at a straight line, missing the Finnmark lobe that bends east above Finland.
- Squeezing it too short, forgetting Norway stretches much farther north than the rest of Scandinavia.
Place it on the map
Norway covers the western and northern rim of the Scandinavian peninsula, pressed against Sweden for almost its entire length and touching Finland and Russia in the far north. If Sweden is the bone, Norway is its ragged western skin.
Pro tip: Don't try to draw real fjords — draw a zigzag with five or six deep cuts and move on. The IoU box cares about the outer envelope, so spend your precision on the Finnmark lobe instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do you draw Norway from memory?
- Start with the overall box — is Norway wider than tall or the reverse — then place its signature feature first and build the rest of the outline around it. Finish with the coastline details, then compare against the real border in a free practice round to get a 0-100 score.
- How hard is it to draw Norway?
- Norway rates as hard difficulty. The jagged fjord coastline and extreme length make an accurate outline nearly impossible to draw cleanly.