Bridal Gown portrait, part 1

These drool-inducing photographs were taken by Hinkleyphoto at my customer's friend's wedding - this drawing will be a gift for the bride! Oh goody! I love pretty dresses. <3

For this drawing, the customer had a very specific layout in mind. She wanted a drawing of the bride both from the front and the back, with the back image being slightly smaller. Because no single photograph captures exactly what the customer wanted, I'm using all the photos above (and a few more!) as references. I threw together this little mock-up for her.

It was clear that accurately depicting all the details of the bride's ensemble - such as her feathery hairpiece and the antique brooch on her bouquet - was very important to the customer. The idea is that this will be sort of half portrait, half fashion plate. In order to accommodate all those details, this drawing is going to be a big 11x14 size. I've been working on this drawing pretty diligently for the past few days and I can't wait to show all of you the finished product - but for now, here's the initial sketch!