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After three sittings I've got enough information in the hands and face to proceed with the painting.  Below is an image of the drawing as I tried to find the right position for his bow hand.   

There are actually three attempts; the higher position, which is easy to see, and two lower positions.  The only thing that remains of one of the hands in the lower position is an indication of the index finger and a line that describes the angle of the bow.  One reason for not using that position was that my dad had to play a note with very different fingering for his left hand, so I would have to either change the neck hand or have it appear that he was running the bow across a string he wasn't fingering.  That kind of incongruity would bother me.

The reason I wanted to try the hand in a lower position was that, in the higher position, all the composition lines were carrying my eye down the body of the cello and right out the bottom of the picture.  Doing that is basically showing the viewer the exits and suggesting they move on, which they will happily do. With the hand lower and the bow cutting across the cello the path of the eye is held there and directed back to the outline of the cello and that line carries the eye back to the center of interest.  It's not a perfect composition but the bow crossing the cello addressed a big problem. 

The next step will be an smaller oil painting to establish my color scheme and then I'll start on the final painting.