In the middle of December 2024 I was contacted by a client enquiring about a commission. This was to be a first wedding anniversary gift for his wife Rachel. Craig and Rachel got married on the 29th December 2023 in Las Vegas, U.S. He was originally interested in commissioning four paintings from his photos. He was looking at A4 similar sizes of 30 x 25 cm. However, the photos are quite detailed and contain a lot of information. Because he was interested in keeping most of the backgrounds, their faces would work out quite small, so I suggested using two images to create larger portraits. He thought this was a great idea, so we began the process of creating some mockups from the photos.
He wanted to gift these to his wife on the day of their anniversary, but because it being Christmas, the busiest time of the year for me, I was not available to finish them on time. I instead suggested an image of the first stage of one of the paintings: a line sketch with yellow ochre on canvas. I printed it out and posted it in hard copy to Rachel. She and Craig were both really delighted:
Hi Ivana! That’s great, thank you so much for making the time for the sketch, it’s perfect. Have a lovely Christmas…Happy New Year to you too and all the best for 2025. Rachel loved the sketch and once again I appreciate you making the time to arrange this for me.
Craig in an email in January 2025, commenting on the sketch I created for his wife
I was delighted Rachel was happy with the sketch. It was something a little different to gift since I could not have the paintings finished on time.
I started sketching the second painting in the New Year and fully painted both once I was happy that I captured their likeness and all the elements from the photos on canvas. Both paintings are 50 x 40 cm in size and I used acrylic paint on stretched fine grain canvas. The canvas is a thin edge canvas at 20 mm depth.
I had a few reference photographs to guide me through the paintings and one reference each for the actual portraits. The first photo is quite complex. It is taken in an indoor vestibul with trees, planting, flowers and a lot of fairy lights as it would be during the Christmas period. There was a lot of detail to capture here and the painting took quite a while to fully complete. The couples’ faces still worked out quite small and I had to use small round brushes to capture their likeness.
The second image is a little simpler. The couple are standing at their wedding chapel beside a very posh Porsche car in a bright green colour. Craig and Rachel are much more prominent in this scene and I had a bit more space to capture their faces and likeness.
Craig was very happy with both paintings and asked me to supply them framed. I ordered some simple limed wood tray frames for the canvases.
Hi Ivana! These look fabulous, thank you so much. Yes it was a very different but great wedding and really happy to have these photos painted, thank you so much…
Craig upon seeing the scans of the finished paintings
Both images are painted in a portrait orientation, so they can be displayed beside each other.
If you enjoy my work and would like to commission your own portraits, please contact me at info@trueimage.ie to discuss your requirements. I am open to any ideas and always welcome unusual projects.