I enjoyed the National Portait Gallery alot more than I  expected it to not only as a primary source of imformation for my unit but the whole experience. Sizes of the painting were really intresting to look at as the workmanship and skill gone into all shapes and sizes was increidable. It allowed you to get really close to the texture created by the Oil paints and how when it dried it cracked, the older painting had more of a mosaic type cracking to them, which i think may be due to it being on panels appose to canvas, these were alot smaller and could onlt be seen very close to the image. The images around 1760-70's had a lighter appearance you could say it looked like the colours were fluffly like clouds and there seemed to be no distinct difference between the background and the sitter. Instead they both merged and the images seem to flow more The use of 'natural' light withing the painting seems to have devloped and more prominent from the 1640's, these later painting are alot more detailed in the contours of the face. A gloss texture appeared on the surface when it  was directly under the artifical light which was not as bright when under natural, so lighting has an effect on the textures we see. I will need consider this when online researching portaits further.