Last year I illustrated the cover of the program for the 2011 Christmas Concert at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco’s Nob Hill. This year I had the honour to be asked once again, for the 2012 shows. This time I was asked to provide an illustration of the magnificent building from a different angle, that of the impressive choir on the western side. Last weekend, my wife and I went to see the Christmas Concert, a beautiful show, and I will show you the panoramic sketch I made in the next post. For now though I thought you might like to see a step-by-step of how I drew the cathedral, along with some detailed and highly useful lecture notes. Cathedrals are fantastic to draw. If I could spend my life just drawing cathedrals I would be one happy little (well, medium-sized) Scully.
Step One: draw some of the cathedral.
Step two: draw the rest of the cathedral
Here it is before adding the colour. It’s a good idea to scan it before you add the colour, because you might want to use it for a colouring-in-book, and you may get the colour completely wrong and accidentally paint it green or something.
Step Three: add some colour. Colour a little bit at a time. Then colour some other bits. Always paint the sky last, for no reason whatsoever. Scan it halfway through so you can say, I like it like that.
And…voilà! You have your cathedral. I am very pleased with it, and I think they were too. I was asked to make it evening time so you can see some of the colourful stained glass. I gave the evening sky a purple tint, to reflect the colours worn by the both the priests and the Men and Boys Choir. I must say, they are a really nice bunch of people at Grace, it’s one of my favourite spots in the city. Please visit them at http://www.gracecathedral.org/. In the next post, I’ll show you what I sketched there at the weekend…
petescully 
Pete, such intricate detail! I am amazed by your ability. Really, your attention to detail is spot on. You give the rest of us much to aspire to :) Incidentally, I was wondering if you’d ever sketched over in Daly City? Some of their houses are quite unique in both color and architecture!
Thanks!! No, never been down to Daly City. The houses sound very interesting though.
wow! i wish i could do detail architectural illustration like yours :)) very clean and crisp lines :))
thank you!
Beautiful! Love the inside view of its making too.
cheers!
I must say, I love your Step 1 and Step 2 descriptions. Pretty sure my steps 1 & 2 would not look like yours…haha
Well, I like to give lots of helpful details.
I can see that. Still chuckling over it.
Sometimes I wish I could be more detail oriented, alas, I am much more an all-over-the-place person when it comes to art. Depends on my mood. I feel like I’m in a dream when I look at your completed work; it’s beautiful.
This is art – no, it is great art.
many thanks!
Loving your drawings!
thanks!!
Another fantastic sketch, Pete. Thanks for sharing the step-by-step photos.
Cheers! I couldn’t remember if I showed these before. Even though they’re not all that helpful it is fun to see it in progress.
That is so beautiful! Reminds me of one of the cathedrals back home.
Cheers! Drawing cathedrals is fun.
This is absolutely lovely with all the detail and colour. It’s good to see how you woked in parts for the final masterpiece. Happy Holidays! Cheers!
Thanks Myra!