Comparing photo to drawing

Now comparing my drawing to the photo that I took, some people may be amazed how close my drawing resembles the photo while others may think I'm crazy that I spent 4 1/2 months drawing somethings when I could have just printed the photograph, frame it, and be done with it. What do you think?

Completed Salt Lake Temple Drawing

After finishing the temple the only thing left was to shade in the landscape and the sky.  As a last finishing touch, which was the funnest part, I added a little white charcoal on the temple as a highlight and to guide the eye.  After 4 1/2 months of drawing, it is finally finished!  Now looking at the finished drawing I believe I can say that I accomplished my goal of producing the best drawing up to this point in my life.  Now I'm excited to do something even better.  My Salt Lake Temple Drawing is now available for purchase by going to my website. http://shaunandersongallery.com/

Next Step: Shading

Once I had the outline drawn onto my board, the next step was to shade it in which is not much more than coloring in a coloring book.  The only difficult thing is to make sure I shaded in the correct value (range of lightness to darkness)  In order for it to look real it it critical to shade with the correct value.  It took me another 2 months to finish the shading for this drawing.  Later that night after I finished the shading of the temple, I noticed the date, it was October 24th.  I then realized that it took me exactly 4 months to draw the temple.  I found that ironic since it took the pioneers 40 years to build the temple.  After spending 4 months drawing the temple I have such a great respect for the craftsmen that spent 40 years building this magnificent structure.  I hope this drawing is an appropriate tribute the pioneers' work and sacrifice.

Salt Lake City Temple Outline Drawing

Once I had a photo that I was pleased with to use as a reference, the next step was to draw the outline and transfer it to my drawing board.  The drawing is done in 2-point perspective.  The challenge that I had to over come was the distortion caused by the camera.  The temples that I drew previous to this project were completed within a month but it took me 2 months just to draw the outline of the Salt Lake Temple. Getting the outline drawn correctly was by far the most challenging part of the whole process. 

Salt Lake City Temple Photo

I have been wanting to draw the Salt Lake Temple for quite time because I have always been attracted to the Gothic style architecture and the stone cutter's detail.  My hope is that this drawing would become the greatest piece of art I have produced up to this point of my life.  To product a great drawing I first needed a photograph that would work as a reference to look at.  I knew what I wanted before I took the picture.  I wanted the North East view of the temple since the Angel Moroni is on the East side.  I also wanted one side to be in light and the other side to be in shadow thus creating a contrast of light and shadow.  I visited Salt Lake in April but the sun was not far enough to the north so both the North and East side of the temple was in shadow.  I visited Salt Lake again on June 24th for my sister-in-law's wedding.  As I sat in the temple that evening I realized that if there was any time during the year that the sun would be high enough to the north, it would be now since June 21st is the day that the sun is the furthest to the North.  A few minutes later, I walked outside the temple and was so excited at the sight.  The sun was in the perfect location creating a perfect light and shadow on the temple.  I quickly ran across the street to my car which was parked beneath the Conference Center, grabbed my camera and took the picture that you now see.  The picture was taken on June 24th 2011 at around 6:00pm.