Two Posts in Two Minutes??

Yes, I know. I just put up a post. But here's another!

 

Tomorrow we are celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of my mother's brother and his wife.  They requested "no gifts" on the invitations, so I thought it would be nice to give them a little portrait I did from their wedding photograph.

My sisters and mother all hunted around for the shot, which I remembered but didn't have a copy of. They scanned it in and emailed it over, so I want to show them what I did because tomorrow it will be all wrapped up and they won't get to see it.

 

Here's the photo:

 

 

Don't you just love the 60's drapes in the background? Kind of an odd backdrop, but if I recall correctly their wedding album was swoon-worthy and there are many more iconic photographs of them.

 

This is the little watercolor sketch I did from it this afternoon:

 

 

It was a lot of fun to do once I got into it. I loved painting her lace mantilla and the bouquet, which was lilies of the valley. Couldn't quite master the shape of my uncle's face and his sleepy eyes, but I think they are recognizable. I hadn't painted anything in a few weeks since I went back to work and it was good to get my hand into it again, and I have to say that I finally learned a few tricks that stood me in good stead. 

For example, I did a few thumbnails before I even started to think about drawing it on the watercolor paper, working out the position of the heads and arms. I did several color studies to decide if I wanted to do a dark background so I could concentrate on the white of her veil and dress, but then decided I was not skilled enough to capture the white in all it nuances in a few hours, so I left the background white and used blushes of gray and lavender to accent the lace.

It was fun and I hope they like it!

Post-Edit:

Being the compulsive person I am, and I am, believe me, I worked on the face and hair and think this makes him look a little younger - and more Italian!