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It's not as simple as black and white.
Beth,
The purpose of shooting black and white film is twofold. Film is capable of capturing only so much information. What it retains in terms of color it sacrifices in terms of value. B&W film is designed to be sensitive to value subtlety. Secondly, B&W film offers one the possibility of creating an extended range of values by altering the development time. So it is possible to have your negatives retain a much greater range of values than color film.
In the digital realm, the range of values is measured by D-max. The higher the number the wider the range. Kodak makes a digital camera back whose value range extends to a twelve value range (very wide) that allows for tonal detail in both highlights and shadows.
The photos you have displayed are very dense in the shadows and darks and don't afford any information there. This lack of information will make your task more difficult. You have another painting you just posted and you said you had problems seeing the eye in shadow. This is a symptom of the same problem, too narrow a value range. I think that this is a function of your camera's limited D-max range. Converting to B&W will not extend your value range any further. The only advantage of working from the black and white reference is that you will not be influenced by the color of the photos.
One of the greatest challenges that realists have always faced was how to get a sufficient amount of information to create the pictures they envision. Painting is in many ways, the easy part.
On a separate note I'm glad you chose to sign up for my workshop. I'm looking forward to meeting you.
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