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Mari, I share the photos with the client because he or she is the only one who knows what aspect of the subject, in terms of expressions and poses, he or she wants to memorialize. Often enough the expression I prefer is not what the client was interested in; to him or her, knowing the subject so much better than I do, the expression I liked meant something different to them: the child being shy with a stranger, the adolescent putting on a harder persona for effect, and so forth.
The client also knows that I don't just "copy" the photos; I make it clear that the actual painting will probably have elements from several reference pictures. The hair is often from one and the hands from another while the pose might be from a third. Once I block the picture in I try to let the client see it so that he or she will know roughly what the finished portrait will look like in terms of composition and subject position. I don't do preliminary sketches because I find that I dislike creating the same image twice, even when the medium is different. But everyone needs to find his own best way of working; that happens to be mine.
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