this came from a visit to the City Art Gallery/museum in Birmingham. They have a bust which shows a soldier wearing a ruff and armor. the shoulder pieces of this armor had faces molded into the plates.

then half-way through, the plan got changed by a trip to the Opera. Shostakovich's "The Nose" which is the story of a soldier who wakes up to find his nose missing. Later he spots it running around wearing a cape, quite defiant. A few days after seeing that, I painted out the nose on this painting- no problem since the paint was still tacky at the time. It took quite a few layers having said that, but it had to be done.