Living just 5 minutes from the DC border, we are always sure to take advantage of all the great things downtown has to offer (Jeff and Pen are downtown at the American History Museum for a viewing of Muppet’s Christmas Carol as I type this). And since most of the museums at the Smithsonian are free, we love to explore all the nooks and crannies, taking our time every time we head over there.

Among all the awesome exhibits, one of my top favorites remains the gowns of the First Ladies in the American History Museum. It is so interesting to see all the dresses from the different time periods, to see the diverse body shapes and sizes, and get a feel for the fashion preferences of the Presidential Wives. It certainly tells you a lot about who they were.

Ever since I visited the gowns exhibit, I thought it would be so fun to draw them all. Not only would it be an interesting historical study, but it would be such good practice for my digital painting. Recently I found these amazing photoshop brushes by arist Kyle Webster, and I knew I was finally equipped to do the paintings.

Here’s what I have drawn so far. I decided to do them in no particular order, just draw whichever one I feel like doing. Each were painted on photoshop with my wacom intuos4 tablet, and took an average of 2-4 hours each.