My 18th Century Private style portrait of the Lady In The Woods was presented to Mad Annie Bailey at the Frontier post in Powell Valley known to Reenactors as Martin's Station. I introduced it as "The Other Side of Mad Annie Bailey. Her mother should be pleased! It was Mother's Day Week end!

The subject is smiling, which was, and is very hard for a sitter to do constantly while the artist did the pose; and the eyes are on the viewer, considered then as 'confrontational' or 'intimate' there fore would be a private piece!

This Artist created Drawspace! She is one of the greats in my humble opinon. I learned a lot from her!

http://www.drawspace.com/lessons/

Sketched background oil portrait

In 1828, Sir Thomas Lawrence did this portrait of William Wilberforce. It is a primary sketch on a prepared background using a graphite piece and then adding oil paint to the face area. Perhaps the balance was left to his students who were also called 'drapery artists' to finish the details. Sir Joshua Reynolds did this by painting just the faces and his many students finished the balance. In this manner Reynolds could do as many as 6 portraits in a 10 AM until 4 PM workday