You May Kiss The Bride

Hello there! It's been a while since I uploaded anything so I thought I would share one of my last portraits...

This was a commission and is my favorite as of now. One of the reasons I enjoyed working on this one was because of the illustration board, the graphite blended and layered beautifully. The texture of the board was natural which in turn gave the skin a very natural look. I will say those braids took me forever, I didn't enjoy them as much as I thought I would! My favorite parts of the drawing are the goose bumps on the back of the brides neck and the kiss.

18 x 12 inches
Nielsen Bainbridge Illustration board
3b Mechanical Pencil
3b, b, h graphite
plain tissue and blending stumps
2+ months

~Linda
EDIT: Thank you everyone for the very kind comments!

Something that came to mind as I was reading:

I love realism very much, it's always been a really fun challenge! To me it's trying to draw the subjects as you would see them in person, up-close and Real...and in many cases it's creating a feeling...a Feeling that you and those that look upon your drawings get!