ARTIST:
Shadowmyst Art, Sharon O’Shea Wood.
MEDIUM: Digital Portrait Painting
TOOLS: Procreate, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro
STYLE: Illustrative
DIMENSIONS: 8 x 10” 300 dpi
ORIENTATION: Portrait
YEAR: 2025
STATUS: Private Collection
June 24, 1979 — the day this all began. Nearly 47 years later, that wedding photograph became this portrait. The gown, the veil, the pearl headpiece, the lace cuffs, the silver-blue tux — every detail faithfully translated into a new work that lives alongside the original memory rather than replacing it.
This piece is the artist’s own — and the most personal demonstration of what a portrait commission from an old photograph can become. If you have a photograph like this one — a wedding, an anniversary, a moment that deserves more than an album page — this is what it could be.
Artist’s Process:
Created entirely in Procreate on a 13″ iPad Pro M5 with an Apple Pencil Pro, from the artist’s own 1979 wedding photograph. Each detail — pearl-trimmed veil, lace cuffs, boutonniere, silver-blue tux — was faithfully rendered from the original. An illustrated style was chosen deliberately over painterly realism, giving the piece a timeless commemorative quality. The floral background replaces the original’s overexposed backdrop with the bride’s bouquet colors, and the gold cameo frame completes the keepsake.
Challenge: Working from a 46-year-old photograph — the original image had significant exposure issues and fading, requiring the clothing details, facial features, and color relationships to be carefully reconstructed from limited visual information while maintaining faithful likeness to the source.