Oil paint is an attractively versatile medium. It is translucent and slow-drying because it is made of raw pigments, cured linseed oil, and liquified resin. These properties enable the artist to blend and manipulate intricate gradations of tone and to work with thin glazes or thick impastos for desired effects. As a result, more realistic and formal portraits are often associated with this medium.

In the absence of color, charcoal portraits create a dramatic focus on form as revealed by light and shadow. Applied to a toothed paper with fingers, this medium uses sensory techniques that heighten the emotional power of the portrait. Though charcoal on paper may age more quickly, it is often preferred for its stark elegance.

Acrylic is the most energetic of mediums. Due to its fast-drying, plastic base, the artist can work quickly. Through the artist's accelerated perception, impressionistic qualities emerge on the canvas. Clients looking to commission more than a photographic image will delight in the raw vitality that is created by swift, deft brushstrokes.

Quick sketches or studies from life offer a concision not found in other mediums. Every line made is a line seen; no erasures are possible. As a result, the precision and character of the line expresses the fundamentals of form and gesture. In a sense the pure essence of the model is captured with the greatest economy.