Before finishing the head de LГЎszlГі would paint the sitter's surroundings to ensureВ the harmony of the composition. He started on a blank canvas in its frame (see below) вЂњpainting a few lines to indicate the placing of the figure on the canvas.вЂќ He then focused on the head вЂњseeking to express by means of light and shade the construction of the skull and defining accurately the larger planesвЂќ in вЂњa process of gradual building upвЂ¦ must be done rapidly and directly.вЂќ He would, to use his favourite expression, вЂњdraw with brushвЂќ to develop the likeness. For his most importantВ commissions he would usually make a sketch in oil вЂњto judge the effect of the colour scheme.вЂќ He usually avoided mixing more than two colours on the palette at any time вЂњfor the sake of purity.вЂќ Instead he applied individual huesВ вЂњwet in wetвЂќ directly onto the canvas.Дe LГЎszlГі would then do a rapid sketch in charcoal or pencil to determine the composition of the painting. He used poppy oil as a medium, because it dried slowly and suited his alla prima technique. Beginning with his palette de LГЎszlГі the colours вЂњin the order in which put them on his palette вЂ“ ultramarine, madder, rose madder, zinc white, light cadmium, dark cadmium, yellow ochre, burnt siennaвЂќ and, when needed, вЂњivory black, Veronese green, Lac garance and orange cadmium.вЂќ Painting a Portrait illustrates step-by-step the process of painting a portrait of the actress Dame GwenВ Ffrangcon-Davies. In 1934 de LГЎszlГі co-operated on a book about his technique withВ his close friend, the art critic Alfred Lys Baldry. The artist later commented on his early method saying that it was вЂњthe way of youthful inexperience and uncertainty.вЂќ He would then draw the figure in detail on the canvas before starting to paint. Examples include preparatory works for the group portraits of the de Gramont and Kupelwieser families painted in 19 respectively. Rapid minimal sketches were deployed in the press as the antithesis to the overdetailed, static photograph, yet, as we will see, these illustrations were influenced both directly and indirectly by photography.De LГЎszlГі's training was traditionally academic and made use of multiple preparatory drawings, often life-size, which he would use to paint the finished portrait. These sketches gave magazine readers a reassuring sense that the city and its denizens were knowable, legible. The sketch was characterized as an immediate, subjective impression, its speed and authenticity attested to by the supposed autographic qualities of process reproduction. Critics saw the sketch as a radical new art form able to portray contemporary life directly to a modern audience unfettered by academic conventions. The photograph was considered too direct and too detailed to show poverty, carnage, or sex. Furthermore, their sketches could depict subject matter that would have been unacceptable if shown in photographic halftones. The modern illustrator was a knowing observer of the contemporary scene differentiating in minimal drawings the meaningful details of the bodies and dress of city dwellers. These sketches depicted aspects of the social scene that the photograph could not. Illustrators such as Phil May, Maurice Greiffenhagen, Leonard Raven-Hill, Bernard Partridge, and Fred Pegram produced social caricatures that, above all, explored the everyday in late-Victorian society. Photomechanically reproduced pen-and-ink line drawings were hugely popular in the magazines of the 1890s.

Rapid sketch training