Cathedral Flower Mart

This weekend was the annual Flower Mart at the Washington National Cathedral.  Many vendors set up stands selling flowers and herbs and crafts (and food) on the Cathedral grounds, as well as activities for children.  I heard bagpipes and banjos while sketching (though thankfully not at the same time).
 

I felt particularly motivated to sketch the Cathedral again after meeting David Macaulay last week, author/illustrator of Cathedral and The Way Things Work, who was speaking at the USA Science and Engineering Festival.
I have loved his books since I was very small, and it was exciting to get to meet him, so I just had to go out and draw a cathedral today.

Washington National Cathedral

The Washington National Cathedral is one of my favorite places to sketch. There is a lot of scaffolding on it right now as they repair the damage from the 2011 earthquake. If you look closely, you can see that the top of one of the spires is truncated, just above the flying buttress.

Washington National Cathedral

I visited the Cathedral this past weekend, hoping to get a chance to sketch it in the snow. But the snow had mostly melted by the time I got there - there was just a little bit left on some of the corners.

National Airport

Gate 39 at National Airport and the plane I'm about to board, with the Cathedral in the distance.

Sketchcrawl #29- National Cathedral/Dupont Circle

Back in October we had the 29th International Sketchcrawl in DC, trekking our way from the National Cathedral to Dupont Circle. At the time I wasn't very happy with my drawings, so I decided not to share them with the online world.

I finally decided to go back and work on a sketch of the Cathedral (since it is such a grand & beautiful structure) and hopefully produce something I was a little happier with.

And after digging around a little bit, I do have one more sketch I'm not too embarrassed to share- a partial sketch of the fountain at Dupont Circle. I've drawn the fountain a few times now, but I always enjoy returning to it for some reason.

P.S. Don't forget about Sketchcrawl #30 happening soon on January 22. The current plan is to try the Library of Congress, but failing that we'll have a backup plan ready. Stop by the forums to stay up to date!