the princess with the crystal dress
Last week I went to visit the royal greenhouse in Brussels. It was beautiful ! I am very happy I could make it as it opens only 2 weeks a year and last year I missed it…. I was disappointed, and I promised myself I would not forget in 2015. (I almost did but remembered right on time – as to say right before too late!!!)
The place is beautiful, and I felt very inspired by the architecture. I wish I had such a garden… well I still have huge woods nearby where I live.. I guess it is almost the same..
When we arrived I saw a huge monument in front of the castle gates, I knew immediately I would use it as a crown in one of my pictures, a symbol of a dynasty used as a crown… it made a lot of sense to me. I just didn’t know I would also find other elements the same day to build up my queen story and dress her up…
What an amazing place! Exotic flora all around… I almost forgot it was so very crowdy (obviously hundreds of people had the same brilliant idea!!!).
I am not a monarchist and do not want to slip into any political discussion about monarchies in Europe (you know in my country we cut our last king head off a few centuries ago….). I am just always amazed by the beautiful architecture and cannot help myself thinking about fairytales world – obviously far from nowadays queens and kings.
They remind me the fairytales that I love, and of course my childhood
I love queens and princess, evil or loving ones they are all always the image of a perfect woman living an adventurous life..
Ok there is also the sexist side, where they always get rescued by charming prince… I KNOW and I do not forget, but sometimes it feels good just to be allowed to dream and to live magical moments, or to create them for the sake of your story.
So here is a little before and after, just to show where di I find my inspiration and how I built this image. The green eyes is not about flattering myself (although I must say I enjoyed it!! Me but not really me..) they are the same color as the dress, and also give just a nice touch of light.
There is also a very short video for the edition process curious ones (16sec) – my process layer by layer.
