Another study, another method

I am in the process of working on another painting study while the grisaille piece dries.  I am not quite sure what to call this method. I will call it the Gian Cassone method since he taught it to me.

I was very successful at painting realistic portraits and still lifes when I took painting back in college using this method.  I learned it from Gian Cassone, my mentor from my teenage years.  He is a very prolific portrait painter.  He was hard on me.  I remember being so excited to learn painting from him only to spend the majority of the summer drawing still lifes (no eraser) in conte for over six hours a day lol.  Then he finally let me get some painting done.  I copied a few painters I admired (Robert Henri and John Singer Sargent).  Then he let me paint other subjects.  You guessed it.  More still lifes.  The tricks he taught me in regards to drawing and painting and establishing tones I still use to this day (when I'm not being lazy lol).

He really drilled home the difference between "looking" and "seeing."  I remember I was working on drawing this elegant vinegar bottle that he had.  I spent four hours refining it and it was really good.  He came over and said "start over."  I thought he was kidding but he was very much serious.  He asked me what I saw.  I told him I drew what I saw.  He said no I didn't.  I had made the background black (to make all of the details I had worked so diligently on really pop) when it was really more of a medium gray.  Since no erasers could be used I had to start over and get it right lol. Another four hours *smh*.

Now I must have been a special kind of 16 year old to take all of that but I was a better artist because of it.

Anywho here is what I have:

This is the image I chose.  It was from flickr by user hdptcar.  It is licensed under a creative commons attribution license and can be reworked so it will be my reference study.

My freehand charcoal drawing of it.  I am done for the time being. It is rainy so I can't spray fixative on the image (outside because of the fumes).  This is 11 x 14 inches.  I have to get rid of all these tiny canvases I have all over the place so I will have more of these studies to come before I get to larger work.

I made the shawl come in more on her face by the forehead.  The photo looked a little awkward.  I wanted to make the negative space more interesting so I made her shawl more pointed to the left.  I can still see the ghost of another sketch I was working on prior to deciding on this image.