Live Wedding Painting Recap: A Wild Affair

The Brief:

Moment: First kiss

Venue: Fort Worth Zoo

Notes: Include some wild animals in the background. Make the painting bright, vibrant, and full of life

This wedding was a BLAST to paint! This was definitely one of the most unique venues I’ve gotten to paint at, and as an animal lover, I was in heaven. The couple got married at the Fort Worth Zoo in, of course, Fort Worth, Texas. The ceremony was on the porch of the Portraits of the Wild Art Gallery. It was so cool to be surrounded by different animal paintings while creating an animal painting! The reception took place inside the gallery.

This is what the painting looked like at the end of the night. I didn’t have a ton of time to work on the background before the ceremony, so this is more or less just 4 hours of work (6pm to 10 pm). It is 16”x20”.

I already knew I was going to add a couple more things to the foreground. It was feeling a little empty, and I didn’t think flower petals were going to be enough. There was a subtle butterfly theme running through the wedding, so I decided to embrace that. The bride’s veil was covered in butterfly embroidery, and there were butterfly centerpieces in the reception.

This is the finished painting!

So! Lots and lots of touch ups done here. I really wanted to emphasize the sun bursting through the trees, so I darkened a lot of the foliage and brightened the edges of the leaves. I also darkened the giraffes (who were not actually there, by the way) and gave them a little halo glow. I, personally, love how the butterflies came out! I stuck with a variety of native Texan butterflies.

Let’s talk about that dress. Painting wedding dresses may be my favorite part of this job. If you look closely, you can see the butterfly embellishments on her veil. You can also see the subtle sparkles that covered her dress, as well as some of the ruching on the bodice. And, of course, I’m always a fan of tattoos and tiaras. The tricky part about painting tattoos is making them accurate and realistic without feeling over detailed.

The couple loved the painting which is, of course, the most important part.

Above are some of the reference photos I used to create this painting!

Notice the photographer’s arm in the first picture. Because I can easily choose to not paint any extra things in the picture, I always try to stay behind the photographer. It’s a lot harder for them to photoshop me out of a picture. I tried to make the painting feel a bit warmer than the reference picture. I also emphasized the light around the couple’s faces. In the reference, their faces aren’t really the focal point, but that should be the most important part of the painting.

Overall, an incredible wedding and a super fun painting!

I hope this post gives you some wedding inspiration (especially if you are planning a zoo wedding)!