I Painted Myself From The Beaches Of Thailand! 🏖 🍸🧡 (Gouache Painting)

The picture had excellent light values and seemed a perfect fit for some gouache practice. I really need to up my gouache game to be able to do more complex work. Because the sunlight was hitting me and the water clearly, it produced some excellent highlights and shadows. And the water was very very clear which meant and interesting challenge to paint!

Now, I didn’t have a proper surface for gouache but luckily I found something that was usable. The most funny part was an orange background lol. I would never have chosen one under normal circumstances. It could have gone horribly wrong, in fact midway I did feel a couple of times like I was gonna throw it away pretty soon but once I put some proper values, it felt doable.

Infact I really like the little orange streaks in the sky and water! The beachwear was so much fun to work on and kinda funny because I was essentially painting my own clothes 😂 Painting water with such luminescence was tricky in the beginning but just like any other study, patience is always the key. It slowly makes sense and sometimes you can even rectify mistakes on the surface as you go along. Best way is to not judge early even if it’s not going as planned.

I remember the moment in this picture very clearly and I think it was right after a jet ski ride. So all of us were thrilled anyway :D Here are some of the process shots which are a little darker than usual, thanks to lack of natural light! 😂