Father of Our Country

From the in-process Presidential Series.
One of the tricky aspects of doing caricatures of historic figures is the obvious absence of photographic reference. Gilbert Stuart was renowned for capturing a subject's essence, and this portrait is based on his eyes. Washington sat for him dozens of times and they were not especially fond of each other ~ Washington hated the drudgery of sitting, which Gilbert picked up on, thus making a decent portrait a special challenge for one who could sense so easily.
Stuarts versions are consistent in their facial structure, unlike earlier, romanticized versions by other artists. As I looked for reference of less celebrated leaders, such consistency becomes unattainable. Or in the case of our 7th President Andrew Jackson, a later-in-life photograph looks little like the romanticized portraits ~ so I'm going with photographic reference, in his case and president #6 John Quincy Adams ~ the earliest president ever photographed.