It’s an interesting human experiment to have someone painted through the eyes of someone else," says Nicky Philipps, a 46-year-old portrait painter based in London. "You don’t have a piece of technology capturing something; you have another person’s brain working on this image and finding the things in it that a camera might not." Philipps was thrust into Britain’s national spotlight last year after unveiling her portrait of Princes William and Harry, which was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery. However, the finished painting still possessed a style and tone that remained consistent with all of her previous works.

When Philipps takes on a new commission, she tries to schedule at least eight sittings, each two hours in duration. While she prefers that clients visit her at her London studio—a custom-built space designed to filter in the ideal type of light—she will travel to meet clients at their desired locations, even if that means stringing together international flights. But the face-to-face time is very important, says Philipps, who was trained by Americans Charles Cecil and Daniel Graves at the Florence Academy of Art. There, she learned to paint in a realist style popularized by John Singer Sargent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and she followed what Daniel Graves described as the "traditional approach to realism."

Through interactions with her clients during their sittings, Philipps slowly discovers more about what motivates them and who they are. And unlike a photography session, which sometimes can capture a person in an unnatural way—especially if the subject is uncomfortable in front of a camera—a portrait session with a painter often can capture a person in a light that truly reflects their personality. "What I’m really trying to do is get to the truth of whoever it is, and that’s why you need to spend as much time with them as possible," she says. "The portrait is growing out of the sittings. It’s not a conscious thing, really. It’s a three-way process where something just emerges on the canvas." Philipps will work from photographs for some elements of a portrait but refuses to use them for the majority of the piece, since she says that they prevent the painter from "feeling things out."

Phillips does paint family portraits, but she insists that children must be in their later teen years, simply because younger children are predisposed to moving around too much. As for prices, a head-and-shoulder or half-length portrait, which is roughly 40 by 30 inches, costs £30,000 (about $49,000), while a full-length portrait, which ranges from 60 by 40 inches to 80 by 60 inches, costs £45,000 (about $73,000). "It’s sort of a luxury, a fun thing to have that not many people do have," she says of a painted family portrait. "There’s longevity, a three-dimensional feel to it, and it should be a fun experience. I hate the thought of someone who’s been to the studio that didn’t enjoy the experience."