461 Ocean Boulevard

Back out in the garden painting today and this is what I came up with.  It’s 461 Ocean Boulevard, the house that Eric Clapton lived in while recording the album of the same name.  Apparently they had to change the address of the house because so many Clapton fans kept turning up there to see it.  And the house has since been demolished.  See, in the U.K. a house like this would get listed status because of its cultural links.

I’m still using just three colours.  Today it’s the cool orange trio: Prussian blue, Indian yellow and rose dore.  I think they worked out well.  Even if I cheated at the end and added some highlights and detail with a white inktense stick.

The best bit about this is the colours in the house and the lawn.  Although I was always going to be using just three colours and although I was always planning to draw this house at some point, I was inspired to do this by YouTube legend Teoh Yi Chie.  This morning over breakfast, YouTube recommended a particular video to me (link https://youtu.be/W33pXVJgTVY) in which he painted a building using only three colours.  What I especially liked (and what I used in my own painting) was how he made colours interesting by varying the mix throughout the wash.  It’s something I do sometimes but should do more.

Another good thing about this one is that I’ve kept values under control and not gone in heavy handed.

While the sky may look pretty good, it’s the thing I was last happy about.  When I got to the end of the painting, I saw that I’d left a bit of sky white near one of the chimney pots.  It stood out like a sore thumb, so I felt the need to tinker.  I started by going over the white with Indian yellow to match the surrounding sky.  But the yellow was too bright, even when I tried to blend it into the rest of the sky.  So I ended up having to glaze over all the sky (and the palm trees in front of it) with Indian yellow, which did make the day look sunnier and did make the house stand out a bit but also made the sky a bit green in places.  Still, who’s to know?

Overall, I count this one as a success.  It’s up for sale.