Getting married was the finest experience of my life… and it has everything to do with my bride — Erin. Her folks, Jeanne and Tom, hosted our dream wedding in their Minnetonka, Minnesota backyard this past July. I couldn’t think of a better moment to capture than this image of my wife smiling in the backyard where she grew up and where we were married.

Here is the process video for this canvas, and below, the source image which was taken by the talented George Flowers.

And now, photos of the process along the way.

Started out with a quick Sharpie sketch over the plastic wrap to get a feel for the composition.

Once down to the actual surface, I began to collage carefully selected New York Post headlines.

After a quick third round of drawing on top of the headlines, I went to work on the dress.

The background became a host of shapes… more abstract than the actual image. It was important to establish Erin’s presence early in the painting process.

Bringing some colors into the skin, and making the flowers pop… in fact, I dug their rawness so they were barely touched again.

Going into the face with deep purples to help differentiate the shadows vs. the highlights. I’ll admit, it was nerve-wracking to paint my wife because I love her so much, and wanted to do her stunning beauty justice.

Warming up the skin, bringing the painting closer. At this point I began to feel much more confident in the image… and decided the contrast on the skin was a bit too much.

After some contrast softening and a few touch-ups, my Minnesota Bride is complete. A big thanks to George Flowers for his incredible camera work — his photo served as an incredible point of departure.

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