After many hours of concentrated work, I'm going to call this one finished.  I think the last time I did a cast drawing was back at Pafa so this was a good exercise to return to.  The most difficult part was rendering the background and getting the value dark enough.  The instructors taught us rendering techniques and how to control the values, which was what I always wanted to learn.  
  Today marks the halfway point of my first semester of grad school.  I'm really beyond happy with the way this program is going.  If anyone out there is a teacher (or interested in teaching) and looking for a solid atelier graduate program then you should apply to the Florence Academy program.

  Working my way through this intensive drawing.  I'm pretty happy with the way it's going, but it needs more work.  The background takes a lot of effort to achieve that black tone.

  I just got a new rare book that I'm very happy to add to my library.  This is a 1934 1st edition of Painting A Portrait by Philip de László (1869 - 1937).  It's part of a series of books called "How to Do It", which included 6 books in total in various media, such as watercolor, etching, sculpture, etc.  For anyone who doesn't know, de László was a brilliant portrait painter who took over a lot of commissions once Sargent announced "No more paughtraits" in 1907.
​  I first read this as a PDF file that was generously sent to me by Mr. Juan Jr. Ramirez.  That PDF was different from this edition and had some different photos and information.  The photos in this book are nicely pasted in and almost have an old, glossy photographic finish to them.  It's really a beautiful book.  As a painter, art historian and collector of rare books, I'm proud to add this to my collection.