empress

Post-Valentine's Day show-off time. This'll have to come in two parts since Stephen's still sleeping and I wouldn't go into his computer files to get his. My card to him references one of his pet artists, Franz Winterhalter. This is Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting (1855). We have a print of it on our bedroom wall.



I figured Stephen could be the Empress and I could be all his ladies in waiting. I did some cropping and moved a few of the ladies over to keep all those little faces as large as I could on the card. Even with all that, there were a couple faces I had to leave just a tad too large because with Photopaint I lost too much of the quality in the shrinking. And of course, having to scour pictures for the perfect expressions of adoration at the right angles (to at least make it look like all the ladies are gazing in Stephen's direction, even though, really, most of them probably aren't), I had some that fit better than others. Some that I couldn't get bright enough without losing quality. The Empress Eugénie has a pretty good farmer's tan going there.