Marie Antoinette

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Lately I've been thinking about making a series of drawing dedicated to some historic women, using some armors and weapons of their times, made in a sexy/nouveau style.

The first woman I decided to portray was Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), who was the Queen consort of France until the Revolutionary Tribunal executed her by guillotine on 16 October 1793.

Drawing her was quite a challenge. At first I had planned to draw her using a different dress, but pretty similar to this one. When I found this painting by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller I decided it was better to draw an interpretation of the dress that she's wearing on it.

The next thing I needed to know, was the kind of armor which was used on that century...I finally found a website about the 18th century, and I found a picture of the Cuirassier armor, and decided that it was the perfect armor for this dress. Unfortunatelly, the pictures I found about it were pretty small, that's why I've maybe missed some details. I also changed the belt for a ribbon.

The painting process was a bit painful with all that folds, ruffles, jewels and metallic elements, but I think it came out pretty nice. One curious thing is that before I painted her hair, it looked like Hades' hair xDDD.

Since I want this series to have a Nouveau frame, I had to search for some references. I found one that I liked and I made my own interpretation of it. It may be a bit simplistic, but I like how it looks.

I think the next one of this series will be Jeanne D'Arc.