Personal project planning- Buddha Tooth relic temple (Patreon)

Hi Patrons!

I've been working on some sketches for my personal project! I had a strong urge to paint something connected to the Asian culture, so I choose the buddhist temple in Singapore to be my location. I imagine this like I'm a film maker, and I choose my set location and frame it to the best of my ability:)

I tried my best to fact check everything I've been drawing, so that I don't do stuff randomly. This is especially important if we are covering a theme that is rooted in history or culture.

One specific thing I gave myself a bit of liberty to change is that I placed the entire temple on an elevated point with stairs, to get to the top. I thought it would give it a more monumental and impressive look.

As for the references, the exterior was pretty easy to find good references, I also used google earth to understand the structure better, and the surrounding buildings. Rooftop garden was a bit tricky, because i was only finding partial references, not the entire picture, so I was piecing the puzzle how that would look like based on the central tower position on the roof.

And for the interior, I found bunch of photos and videos of the temple inside, and generally how does the altar look like, and what kind of elements and decor is used.

This was pretty fun! The next step would be refining these sketches, and making a proper layout drawing.

Let me know if you would like a tutorial of me walking you trough this entire process!

I think that it is super valuable to carefully analyse the project like this before starting it. It gives us the chance to think about the entire project as a whole, not just individual images:). And it is great to have some sketches in this phase so that we can see how they work together.

I made a mistake in the past of not being more methodical about this stage of the process, which I want to avoid. I will give myself the benefit of the dought, and see how I can elevate my idea more, as I progress:)