290 Years!

First Congregational Church of Scarborough - colored pencil and pastel by Susan Camp Hilton 2018

We love to celebrate birthdays especially kids, counting down to when they are 5 or 10 years old.  As we get older, we celebrate milestone birthdays like 50, 60 and even up to 100!  However, can you imagine a 290th birthday?  Well, recently a church in my area celebrated its 290th birthday!  Can you imagine?  That is quite a feat to still be in existence after all that time.  Definitely worth acknowledging.
As part of the celebration event, I was commissioned to draw the church.  The time frame was short but I was pleased to be able to do this piece for the event.  
​Below you can see my process:

Here I have my sketch transferred to 8 x 10 sanded pastel paper and taped to the drawing board (that blue painter's tape is nice to use; easier to get off when I'm done). I like the texture of this paper. The color pencil will blend almost like pastel. Here, I have started with the sky and then the dark roof and white church.

Now, I have the red brick of the foundation and the steps. The bushes and trees have some color and help to frame the church. I used some blues and purples for the roof to give it a richer color. Plain black would have been too flat. Layering black over these colors will give it a richer look.

It wasn't until I started working on this drawing that I realized there were green shutters in the steeple. Amazing the things I find once I study a photo to create artwork. I also decided to add aqua and blue to the windows because I wanted to show the light within shining out. I've also started to add a little more color and shadows to other areas.

More filled in here. More color and shading everywhere to build depth. I'm using pinks and a light lavender color for the shadows. I've added the lawn area and part of the parking lot to help ground the building. You'll notice I didn't use gray for the parking lot area. That looked too boring to me. I decided for various purples, pinks and blues. I like that much better.

More fine tuning here. Have the stairs and the railings but no name on the church yet.

I think it’s pretty much done now. It even has the name of the church on the building finally! Now it’s off to the church so they can get it framed in time for the big birthday event.

Here it is all framed and on display! There’s a bit of glare from the lights but hopefully you can see the finished product.

I was happy that I was able to do this artwork to celebrate the 290th birthday of the First Congregational Church of Scarborough. It was really a fun event. You can see some pictures and video at www.facebook.com/fccscarbourough/

Upon request, I have also created notecards and prints of this drawing and they are available for purchase.  I will donate a portion of all sales of these items to the First Congregational Church of Scarborough.  Thanks!

Church note cards - Boxed set of 6

$18.00

These note cards were created from the original colored pencil artwork commissioned for the 290th anniversary of the First Congregational Church Scarborough.

The boxed set includes six 5 x 7 cards with a premium glossy surface to enhance the cover image. The inside has a matte finish making it easy to write on.

A portion of all the sales will be donated to the church.

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Church print - First Congregational Church Scarborough

$15.00 - $20.00

5 x 7 print of the original colored pencil artwork commissioned for the 290th anniversary of the First Congregational Church Scarborough in 2018.

A portion of all sales will be donated to the church.

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