Approaching the Painting

I approached this piece well i thought, the tonal aspect when it was announced threw me slightly but once i got into the swing of things, highlighting the darkest areas and the lightest and then working in the mid-tones, it seemed to flow pretty well.
I started off with a light grey wash, outlining the image, working quickly and swiftly as it was only the outline, which only needed defining vaguely to allow me to work more into the actual tone.
From then on, i just got on with it and painted just what i saw, mainly concentrating on tone.
Laura said we could use some charcol if we wanted to, so then i used the charcol to define some areas but ended up using it to define the edges against the background.
The background as previously explained, i wanted to keep minimal as to keep the object the main focus, i didn't want to paint the background as i saw it, behind the still life, as i felt this would distract from the actual object.
I revisited the painting a few days after spending the whole day working on it, to reasses what was going on in the piece and add some final lighter tones to it, with fresh amounts of paint.
When i approach painting i always do an outline in a wash, which is exactly what i did here on this piece. I tend to paint quite life-like, not the extent of say photo-realism but i like people to know what it is i have painted and i guess that is how i paint and the style i paint in, and this has been carried into this piece.
I can't say i liked using the oils in this context on raw canvas as it was hard work; i tend to paint using acrylics myself as had actually never used oils before. I think i handled them well though, and managed to apply them well, although trying to thin them out was hard work.
In relation to the Berger essay, i just saw what i saw and interpreted the object in my own way, in my own style and how i saw the still life there and then on the day. We were all a little preoccupied by the fact the piece looked like somone from the KKK, a white hooded figure; was a little distracting and may influence what a viewer would describe it as too.