Drawings based on photographs in William Abbatt's "Battle of Pell's Point" Book

Last month I worked up some drawings based on the photographs in William Abbatt’s book “The Battle of Pell’s Point, October 18,1776”. The exercise helped me to formally examine the compositions of the nine photos, as well to analyze the various scenes.

During my process I started thinking about working with gray scales and how that affected working on brown paper with black and white pigment. Again my goal was not to re-create a photographic painting. However, I would like to find someway to combine the two later on. With these drawings I am playing with creating a techniques that can quickly capture the scenes.

In this post I am including all nine drawings in order of appearance in the book with the original caption. The order of illustrations follow the route of the battle running from South to North.

Glover's Rock(Where the conflict began)

Looking East from Glover's Rock

Looking West from Glover's Rock (About here, probably, occurred the first encounter with Reads's regiment.)

The Split Rock road, at junction with Shore Road. (Showing R.R. bridge about a mile beyond which was probably the scene of the sharpest fighting.)

From the Split Rock road. Looking across the valley to East Chester. (St. Paul's Church in the distance)

The Hill at Wolf's Lane, Pelham Manor. (The Hutchinson Bridge is at the foot of the hill about three-quarters of a mile distant.)

The Bridge over the Hutchinson River. (At the old Boston Post Road)

St. Paul's Church, East Chester, Built 1764 (This building was at one time used as a hospital by the British.) (A witness of the battle- just across the valley from the scene. A number of British and Hessians are buried in the churchyard.)