How Do I Paint a Historic Townscape?

1.  Choose the etching or photograph

I have several sources of etchings and historic photographs to choose from (see below, right) and these include mostly towns and villages in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  I can also work from client-supplied images.

2.  Decide what to paint it on

The possibilities are endless!  I prefer to use antique raised panels , but when I don't have the right size, my very talented carpenter husband makes me raised panels using new and/or recycled historic wood.  I can also use masonite or a thin piece of wood for those wishing to frame their own townscape.

3.  Research the image

I have 30 years of experience as an architectural historian, so I'm highly-qualified to make these paintings historically accurate.  But, before I can paint any picture, I need to determine which buildings are still standing.  Then I need to see what they're made of--wood, brick, or stone--so I know how to paint them.  I often use Bing or Google maps to help me.
4.  Start painting!

I was trained in oil painting, so that is the medium I use for my historic townscapes.  My brushes range in size from 6 to an almost-microscopic 18/0 liner.

Below is a finished painting of the Chalfonte Hotel which still stands in Cape May City.  Below that is Clinton, New Jersey as it looked about 1844.
I can use historic photographs, but simple black and white etchings often provide the best image to start with.  One of my favorite sources is a book written in 1844 by John Barber and Henry Howe titled Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey.  It included over 100 woodcuts of various New Jersey towns and landmarks.  The 1846 version of the book is available for free on Google books; use the link below.

Click below for a list (with page numbers in that book) of those New Jersey illustrations, broken down by county.


Etchings for Connecticut,
Ohio, New York, Virginia,
and Pennsylvania

Barber & Howe also wrote books, with etchings or woodcuts, in the 1840s about Ohio (with an updated version in the 1880s), New York, Virginia, and Connecticut.  Sherman Dey did a similar book about Pennsylvania, also with etchings.  I have indexed the prints for Ohio counties of Lake through Wyandot, and all of the prints in Dey's Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania.  Full scans of these books are available at Google books.  Links for those books are below.
BOOKS WITH ETCHINGS AVAILABLE ON GOOGLE
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