The following painting was completed in teaching a figurative painting class at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.  It was completed in three sessions and I photographed the painting  at the end of each session to record the progress.  I feel it is important for the student to learn to paint from "life" and so I do not allow photographs taken of the model for them to work from later.  Norman Rockwell once said, "I don't suppose anyone will follow my advice, but it is better not to use photographs until you have proved your ability to get along whollly without them." and I agree.
Our model is well known Bay area model Otienno.  He brought in what I believe is a traditional African costume.  I asked him whether he would normally wear this and he emphatically replied that "He would never bring anything he does not wear normally."  Good enough for me.  I want the pose to be "real", a real person in contemporary life.

Day One: Graseille: Started with vine charcoal to place in the figure in the composition.  Really just a gesture that took a few minutes.  I then established a mid-tone color for the general local color of the skin tones and costume.  From this stage, drawing with the brush, I use primarily raw umber to draw the figure and tone the entire canvas to establish a darker canvas for this picture.

Day Two: This next stage resumed a week later, so the painting was completely dry allowing me to establish a darker deeper dark for the background.  The head and hands along with parts of the drapery are resolved more fully.  The folds continued to change every time our model resumed the pose which was a challenge but I mostly stuck with the original drawing from day one.

Day Three:  This is the completed painting after the third session.  We resumed the pose a week after Day two, so the painting was completely dry, allowing me to oil down the painting with linseed oil prior to resuming painting.  I was able to achieve an even darker and richer black for the background due to three layers of glazing.