The article is devoted to the process of creating a portrait miniature, step-by- step described in the treatise by remarkable English artist Nicholas Hilliard. The new view on the lost skill of limning includes the study of its influence on the individual components of a portrait and its role in reveal of main human characteristics. A unique technique and materials used by the miniaturist, considered in connection with stylistic features of English miniatures. All of these external characteristics are represented as modes of expression of the private sense and as ways to create an individual portrait image.