Cathedral drawing
This grand cathedral is a magnificent sight. You’ll love learning how to draw this cathedral if you’re a fan of history or architecture – or looking for a drawing challenge. In this section, we are going to show you how to draw this cathedral. You can remove it freehand while looking at your computer screen, or you can print out this page to get a closer look at each step. We will teach your kids about house drawing.
Architectural drawing
Here we will show you a picture of each step and then describe how to draw it. Follow the red lines in each image to know what to draw at this stage. The lines induced in the past steps are in grey.
Architectural drawing is a work of observation and rigour. You will have to be very attentive, and above all, patient! Of course, you won’t be able to write down everything you see and admire. From sketches to colouring in watercolours, you will know everything about art and how to sublimate architecture.
Equipment
- Paper: Canson 1557 200g
- Pencils and brushes: 1 fine-point indelible black ink pen, one wash brush
- Colours: 8 watercolours in a tube
- Ultramarine blue, yellow ocher, red ocher, Payne’s grey, cerulean blue, olive green, cadmium red
- Accessories: 1 ruler, one drawing board, one roll of masking tape, one water jug, one watercolour palette
Step 1 Prepare the support.
You will colour your drawing in watercolour, wet technique: to prevent the paper from curling during the work, and it is necessary to stretch it. Secure it, using adhesive tape, to your drawing board. Large format paper makes it possible to make a sheet of a size adapted to the chosen subject.
2nd step Draw the construction lines.
Before starting to draw, locate the horizon line (located at eye level) and the vanishing points (placed on the horizon line, moments towards which the drawing lines converge). Draw your lines with a ruler so that the foundation of your work is solid Ezine posting
Step 3 Draw the architectural details.
Your gesture should be slow, light, but precise. You will not be responsible for drawing everything you see: select the elements to represent. You will need to suggest which ones you have decided to rule out. Also, vary the degree of detail precision between the foreground and those farther back.
Tip: vary the pressure on the pen. A more or less pronounced line allows you to prioritize the elements.
Step 4 Draw the layout.
This delicate operation is essential: it gives consistency to the walls of the building, suggests the material, and provides information on the age of the construction. Do not attract all the rocks: distribute them balanced so that the missing stone is suggested.
Step 5 Staging the architecture.
Locate the architecture in a living environment: a tree, characters, birds, an urban context, animate your drawing and give a scale to the architectural elements.
Step 6 Color the drawing.
Test your colours on scrap paper.
- Prepare a good quantity of blue juice (blue cæruleum): apply the liquid with the wash brush on the sky. Create gradient effects by playing on the dilution of the fluid. You have to work very quickly.
- Prepare a beige juice (red ocher + yellow ocher + Payne’s grey): apply a wash brush on the rest of the drawing. Leave to dry.
- Use the beige juice by adding grey to make it darker: quickly colour a few stones with the tip of the wash brush. Lay fewer colours on the more distant planes.
Step 7 Color the details.
- Prepare a greenwash: with a medium pointed round brush, go over the tree and the hedge of the church.
- Prepare a red ocher wash: always with a medium pointed round brush, go over the bricks. To give the building a more slender look, also pass some brown on the tree.
Be careful, have a light hand! Take the time to observe your drawing as a whole. Leave to dry.
Step 8 Lay the shadows.
The shadow gives credibility to the design, brings out the protruding parts of the building, suggests the hollow parts, detaches the masses from one another. So prepare a good quantity of grey wash (Payne’s grey + yellow ocher + ultramarine blue). The latter can draw in blue or purple. Apply it to the Cathedral drawing facade, the first building, inside the arches: go through the bottom of the bays to suggest a darker shade.