Now it seems so second nature, but, when I began painting portraits, eye glasses worried me. I'm not sure what I would have done if Margo had come to me with her wavey frames just four short years earlier!
Back then, I often asked a subject to remove her-his glasses during part of the photo-session, so that I would be able to work with a reference image that did not have the distortion of the lenses (magnifying or shrinking the person's eyes). On at least one occasion, I simply painted from a supposed reference image.
Facial hair fell in the same category as glasses. While I never asked anyone to shave for me, the portrait of this be-spectacled and be-goatied man was a challenge.

To learn more about the making of this portrait, please visit my blog.