Cyrus McCormick in Va Living

For the June issue of Virginia Living magazine, I wanted to create a portrait of a young Cyrus McCormick, “father of the mechanical reaper” to accompany an article on his life and accomplishments. There was good photo reference on him as an older gentleman, but not as a young fellow. So it was a bit of a challenge to create the youthful version of him. I kept the palette limited to give it a period feel while keeping the piece fresh for the 2009 reader.