Shadows of the Victorian Past

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. In Denver there is a Historic Park with beautifully restored Victorian houses lined up on both sides of a greenbelt and benches with lots of shade are also provided. It is one of my favorite places for plein air painting and I take one of my workshops there every summer. This brick Victorian is one of my favorites because it has all the characteristics of Victorian architecture which are, tall windows, wrap-around porches, gingerbread trim, different roof lines, widows walk, and bold color schemes. I chose this angle because I liked the location of the next house which I could represent as a single shape in shadow. There are lines of trees along the greenbelt which cast shadows on the houses and that was another attraction for me.

Before I started painting, I decided to use pen and ink along with watercolor. From past experience, I learned that if I did my drawing in ink then I simply filled it in with watercolor and it looked like a coloring book. So this time I started painting and used my intuition to decide when and where to add ink. I think this worked pretty well because the watercolor dominates and the ink adds nice accents. You can see the ink lines along the windows and roof where they seem to fit right in. You can also see where watercolor was used for the cast shadows on the side of the house and the window frames and then pin and ink was used for the cast shadows on the glass. The over hanging branches add a nice touch of nature while framing the composition and they also explain where the cast shadows are coming from. Cast shadows should include the colors of what ever they are covering and here I added burnt sienna and ultramarine blue to the brick color which is Indian red mixed with yellow ochre.

Different values of olive green were used for the lawn and bush and I added French ultramarine blue to olive for the tree on the right border. The sky is cerulean blue put down with soft edges and I mixed cerulean blue with a tiny bit of lemon yellow for the roof. French ultramarine blue was used for the glass windows and the neighboring house is a mixture of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue. You can see how the burnt sienna dominates the mixture and gives a warm tone to the shape. Warm sunny days are here in Denver and I will be heading over to the Historic Park to continue my series of watercolors of these handsome Victorians. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton