Final Project: Another Portrait?

It is not that I mind that I have to do another portrait, but wonder minimally what else I may have come up with.

My wife wants me to do a portrait of her. Creatively it gives me a heading to steer in the perimeters of the project, so no complaints. It will be a learning venture and I will always look at it this way.  Content and symbolism will still be achieved in the piece once I get my homework done.

My Influences and research:
I am influenced by Romanticism, especially the work of Ingres who I researched before. It is not the technical part of his work but rather the classic style that I feel is important of me to learn before I break out into my own. Of course my expectations of reaching that level of portrait is far from attainable due to my own skill and time frame.
Thanks to work in my last piece I am also encouraged to push my understanding of lighting effects. I have always been interested in the effects of Vermeer's work and hope to attain some level of skill with this. His use of lighting is popularly celebrated so I think it is a good place to start.
Somewhere between my ongoing technical growth and research in these two artists I hope to bring about an artwork that I my wife can like and I would be proud to place in her office or our home:)
I am not putting too much pressure on myself, if id does not come out great I can always do it again.

Her Influences:
I already have to include her personality into the piece. Knowing she also has a strong liking of Romanticism, but she would rather impressionism:)
Her homeland will be reflected in the piece but as in my last portrait I aim first with colours. Her hometown of Mostar, Herzegovina stands in my mind with allot of grey mountains, Lavender fields in the summer and rosemary bushes that grow wild everywhere. The teal blue of the Adriatic sea and the Neretva river are also important, but the I will contemplate with as I would not describe the region as colourful (coming from the Caribbean). Artists she is drawn to are Delacroix, Corot and Boudin.

Though I will reflect on her preferences because her portrait should reflect her personality; me as the artist must remember it is also how I see her and would like to illustrate that to the the viewer. But I hope to capture this in, posture, dress and gaze.

My size will be square (already part of my reflection of her personality), so most probably 36"x 36".

All left to do is a initial sketch to figure out layout and composition. The problem here I feel will be what to include as Ingres and Vermeer had allot in their pieces and I doubt I will have as much time. With that worked out I will venture into a photograph to work from and begin.

As Ingres portraits stood as period pieces with style of dress and furniture and indications I also hope to incorporate these. Vermeer was known for doing middle to lower classes doing everyday things so I will steer my creative exploration this way also.