Missing the wedding ceremony can turn out in a painting

I had one job at our neighbours' wedding: 'Stay by the car and watch it. If necessary, drive away out of the non-parking-zone.' Which meant, I will miss the ceremony in the church,... but, ok. Usually, I take my drawing stuff wherever I go. Most of the time, I just feel good having it with me. At the wedding day, though, I got motivated to use it. While killing some time with a pencil sketch, the cute, little wedding car drew some attention with by-passers. Colouring and framing it wasn't the first idea. But hey, if it turns out ok, it could well be a nice after-present for the couple.

Gouache Painting 

The original Beauty

'The Beagle' in Gouache

Gouache is such a versatile medium to paint with. It was my first try and I am amazed by the freedom it gives you. This is a painting of Darwin's ship 'The Beagle'. 1831, it took him on a 5 year long journey which triggered his most important work 'On the origin of species'. Source was a black & white internet photo of a faithful replica. I intentionally did not do any color research of ocean and ship, but am thankful for the help of an art instructor to push me in the right direction. There was not much time to finish, but, on the other hand, I cannot say I rushed it, since I ended up spending about an hour on one wave,... which was cut off, of course.

I do not have much practice with color and thought, gouache would be perfect to start with. Because it is a water-soluble medium, you can do wet washes as in the sky. And it is also no problem, this time contrary to watercolor, to set highlights with whites or working over parts you don't like.