Finished Wedding Portrait

Over a year after their big event, I was recently able to finish my wedding gift for my twin sister Emily and her husband Blake. The reason for my delay? I was working from a black and white photo. I went through all of her wedding pictures and decided that this one was the best pose.  It was a great exercise for me - I used a few other color images to help me with color reference, but the best thing I did to overcome this challenge was to paint a head study of my sister from life. I'm fortunate enough to see her almost every week, as she too lives in the Dallas area (you can't keep twins apart for long!). Painting her from life sealed her skin tones, hair color, and expression into my memory, and I was able to get past some of the roadblocks and finish the portrait strong. Here it is:

Emily and Blake: March 20, 2009 - 18" x 24" - oil on linen

And a detail crop:

Finished Wedding Portrait