Create terrace houses in watercolour and ink pens

In this tutorial, we’ll take you through how to create these charming Victorian terrace houses using watercolours and ink pens. You’ll learn ink pen wash techniques and create interest through shadow. So, follow along with our step-by-step guide and video below!

Start by transferring the outline image on watercolour paper. You can download and print the outline and reference image through the “resources” drop down on the webpage.

The best way to transfer it is to flip the image over and shade the backside with that 6B pencil. Turn the image back over, tape it to a sheet of watercolour paper and retrace the linework with a sharp B pencil.

Once the linework has transferred, re-draw the linework with a 0.3 graphic fine liner. You can add extra detail if you like at this stage.

Once the line work is done, you can start painting in the sky. Fill the water brush and dip it into the Ultramarine Blue pan. Lay a wash into the sky area and pat it gently with a dry tissue to lighten areas.

Before you start painting the building, think about the light source. In this picture, the sun is directly overhead.

As terrace houses have a dividing wall between them that extends above the roof, paint them in with a light mix of Yellow Ochre, and Burnt Sienna and then darken the sides of the dividing walls.

Next, create a green mix from Gamboge and Sap Green and lay this wash into the first house. Move down the page as you paint. With watercolours, the general rule is to start with the lightest colours first, allow the coat to dry naturally, and then add the darker tones over the top.

For the second house, create an off-white colour using Chinese White and a touch of Paynes Grey, and lay this wash onto the page.

For the third house, created an apricot tone Chinese White, Cadmium, and a touch of Burnt Umber and lay this on the page.

Create a rusty red tone from Burnt Umber and Vermillion and paint the corrugated iron roof of the first house.

Make a mix of Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna and paint in the two tiled rooves for the second and third houses.

Once the first coat on the green house is dry, mix a darker version of the green and paint it into the shadow areas of the first house. There will be shadow cast from the veranda and on the sides of the windows, so it’s good to fill these areas to highlight the planes of the building.

Then, paint the apricot tone from the third home in the blinds.

Lay some Burnt Umber into the left tree.

Create a light grey using Paynes Grey and lay this mix into the shadow areas on the second house, the gutters, and the wall at the front of the houses.

Create a darker version of the apricot colour that the third house was painted with and lay this into the shadow areas.

At this stage, most of the painting is done and you can add little details and paint the doors and windows.

Paint the other tree and add more green tones to the garden. The green vegetation of the trees can be laid in with a mix of Sap Green and Lemon Yellow.