How To Draw The Crystal Temple

Steven Universe is a show filled with a colorful cast and backgrounds but the one background that shows up in almost every episode is Steven's home the Temple.  From the pilot episode till now the Crystal Temple has been there since the beginning. So as something as beautiful and mysterious, here is how I created the Crystal Temple aka the Temple Gem.

Getting Started

When looking for how to draw the temple you need to look at many images and angles till you find the right one. I chose the image above as a reference point on how I want my art to look in the end. 

At first drawing this might seem confusing or even difficult but that shouldn't stop you! Here are a few tips when creating this giant woman.

• Know how many arms are there
• Notice the shadows / lighting
• Count of how many eyes, noses, and mouths are there
• Treat as if its a person

The Temple has 8 arms because its meant to be a fusion with the major Crystal Gems (Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Rose Quartz) but some of the hands are missing to give it an older look / feel. Many are in the sand so keep that in mind!

How you draw the source of light will give it a realistic effect too so be mindful on what color scheme you chose to go with! I stuck with the image above so I used natural colors. 

Keeping in mind how many facial features there are will make it easier on where to place things and not stressing if you forget a nose or a mouth!

Lastly the Gem is a fusion but treat it as a person when drawing it! Use a method right for you and lightly sketch it out as if you are drawing a human first not a background!

Reference Images

As I stated before, creating the temple isn't the easiest thing to do but looking at what you are drawing will help greatly!

Thankfully the official show and its crew members have given us plenty to work with!

Note how large the temple is to other buildings and how its attached to a hill side. How there are small rocks and parts of the temple fallen off and into the beach sand! 

Pay attention to the tiny details of the lumps of moss and grassy parts! 

When drawing the hair notice how its similar to Rose Quartz so be sure to make it seem curly/wavy!

Drawing The Temple 

Now that you have a basic understanding on how it looks its time to lightly sketch out the hill and the temple!

First have a base line for where the hill will stand on. Then make a curve for it to seem like a hill large enough to fit the light house on top along with the temple to be stuck to. 

Now lightly do your drawing method on how you make people! I use the circle method as I stated in past posts. So feel free to use that one!

With a pencil lightly draw out the body shapes (head, torso, arms, hand) and lines in the inside of the hill to make it seem like there are rocks.

Again make sure too look at your reference picture as you draw!

Making The Sky 

The sky in Steven Universe is full of magic! From bright cool colors to warm and comforting. For this again search for a reference image if you wish to change its look/color. 

I use the same image for my sky but there are many options to chose from! Here are just a few examples!

when you chose a sky lightly sketch out the the clouds, sparkles, stars, and streaks for the clouds to make it seem similar to Steven Universe's style.

Coloring

Once you sketch everything out its time to color! I use simple crayola colored pencils and basic acrylic paint and water colors. All things you could find at a local art&craft store or at a Walmart!

Start coloring the body very lightly and as you continue go back and make it darker. Make sure to make it darker in lines where the stones are going to be to make it seem more like a stone. 

Colors I used are:

• brown
• dark brown
• golden brown
• tan
• light green
• dark green
• green

These will be the basic colors for the Temple along with the grass/moss!

Once you are finished your outcome should be similar to this

again its important to line some things out such as the hair curls, gem stones, eyes, and lips! Don't be afraid to push a bit more and outline things but make sure to show shadows around the hair, under the neck, and where the mask is!

Leave the houses, light house, sand, and sky blank for now. Focus on the main point for now and go through the lines you sketched with a light browns and go back and add darker colors. Don't be afraid to add gray to it as well! 

For the hanging clothes feel free to use any colors you wish! I used blues for mine along with light blue for the window in the house.

Painting The Sand

Use these acrylic colors:

• white
• red(or pink)
• brown 
• yellow
• tan

have a lot of white pain for this!!

take white paint and mix it with the red to make a pink. now take a super small dot of brown and mix it with that. the lighter it is the better! 

add a little more tan but not as much as the white! than take another dot of yellow if needed. 

The result should look almost like a tan flesh skin tone or lighter. This will be painted over where the sand should be! 

use a medium sized brush or a small and dab your brush in a small amount of water and lightly go over the surface. 

Once that is dry go back over with the normal acrylic. It should have some dimension! If not feel free to add a tan/brown to the painting lightly to make it more like sand!

Painting The Sky

Now that the ground is semi done you can move on to the sky. 

Paint I use:

• medium blue
• light blue
• white
• dark blue

Take the lightest blue you have and lightly paint the sky. Its alright if you get some closer to the land it can be covered up later!

Use the watercolor and take a small brush to pain white streaks in the sky. Once that dries use the same watercolor but with a dark blue and pain streaks into the sky similar to the white ones.

Go back through with a medium water color paint mixed with a bit of acrylic. Lightly cover the sky but leave it enough for the streaks to show through!

Now take white and create the clouds making them large and puffy! If you are unsatisfied with the sky wait till it dries and go over with more blues from light to dark till you are happy with the results!

Add white sparkles in the sky and near the statue similar to your reference image.

Painting The Land

Now you are almost finished! Go through and paint the grass that surrounds the Temple with a medium green water color than gradually darker the further away it is! 

The lightest pain should be closer to the temple and darker further away!

Finished Product 

Once you color the building with a yellow roof for the top building and a gray for the bottom. And a brown fence you are done!! The painting should be similar to what you looked at!

I hope this helps you good luck with making the Crystal Temple!

Sources:

(all images are from the show Steven Universe)