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Hi Mark,
To answer your questions: no, the Governor's schedule did not allow for live sittings. I did two photo sessions with him and two photo sessions with his staff members prior to that, standing in for him, to test various lighting and posing options.
There is no surface texture on the painting and I don't use any medium -- just Gamblin or Winsor Newton paint straight out of the tube.
When dark areas get dull and sunken in, I brush on a 50/50 mixture of linseed oil/odorless mineral spirits to "oil out" those places. Then I wipe most of it off.
For the face, hands and the seal on the chair I used a tiny synthetic brush that is about 1/16th of an inch wide and about 1/3 of an inch long. For larger, simpler areas I used larger sizes, all in filbert shapes and mostly synthetics.
Hope that helps!
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