Lately I have been working on a series of tutorials for IMAGINEFX by Future Publishing.
This artwork was made specifically for the Gown Painting and Decorating Tutorial.
The tutorial covers the detailed process of painting the whole dress, starting with a basic sketch to coloring and decorating with lace and embroidery.
So... if you want to see how this was done, check out IMAGINEFX Issue 3!
The image was done in Painter with some aid from Photoshop CS2 (stone textures); around a week of really hard work
here's a 100% close-up of the embroidery:

For request, a 50% closeup of the upper torso