Portraitures were popular during colonial times. Henry Benbridge used oil on canvas and watercolor on ivory. Jeremiah Theus also used oil on canvas for his portraits. John Trumbull painted numerous portraits of Thomas Jefferson. He often used oil on mahogany. John Smibert also painted numerous portraits using oil on canvas.
Pastels were introduced to Colonial America as early as the first decade of the 1700s. Henrietta Johnston, one of America's first notable female artists, chose pastels as her medium of preference. John Singleton Copley also used pastel on paper, mounted on canvas.
Jean Etienne Liotard created "Portrait of a Man" using red and black chalk. Enamel, etching, engraving, mezzotint were also common tools of the period.