Jason NicholasCreator, The Inkspired Life · Sketchologist™ Sketch Boldly . Live Creatively.

Unlock the Art of Sketching Gothic Cathedrals!

5 Oct 2024 · 1 min

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In this excerpt from his YouTube video, artist and instructor Jason Nicholas explains his enthusiasm for sketching Gothic cathedrals, emphasizing the abundance of angles, points, and striking spires that make them compelling subjects. He advocates a loose, rapid drawing method that still conveys the building’s identity—so that viewers can recognize the structure (e.g., St. Patrick’s) without any labels. Jason connects this practice to his classroom routine, where he assigns weekly sketchbook exercises focused on architectural subjects. The core teaching goal is that a sketch should instantly suggest the building it represents; achieving that recognizability is presented as the measure of success.

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I love sketching these kind of Gothic cathedrals because there's so many angles and points to them, and these spires are so cool. No, some just kind of keeping it loose and fast, and hopefully you guys can tell that if I didn't tell you this was St. Patrick's, hopefully you'd be able to tell it's some kind of a cathedral building, and if so, my job is done, is successful. Just like I tell my students in school, they have weekly sketchbook assignments, and I'll usually assign buildings for them to sketch. Um, and I always say the end goal is if someone looks at your sketch and they can get an idea of what building you were sketching, that's all that matters.