Shane Neal’s Process

1. talk to the subject, get to know them, understand them, see their characteristics.
2. Do a informal sketch, head and neck, informal
3. Then take a lot of pictures for the final painting
4. Take some pictures with the sitter when they aren’t sitting either, to see their facial features and planes
5. Then do the effect study, with color shapes, resolve all the design problems before painting the full size
6. Then paint the shapes on full canvas, paint the head egg and more if possible
7. Second day, work from life. Focus on the features, value, colors and small details. Work from life, ignore the photo. Pay attention to the subtle value and plane changes. Lay the ground work for the photo session.
8. Once the sitter leave, keep working on the painting with the photo reference. Don’t modify the value or color by the photo, stick with the life information.
9. Final day, details. Time for highlight and accents. Day two should have a little bit of highlights and accents developed, but the last days are the final pushes. It might required 3-4 sittings, and each would be 2 hours or so.

My important take aways:

1. Start from the mid tones, and increase contrast gradually. The light and shadow differences should be small at first.
2. Sculpt the form. Think and paint like a sculptor.
3. Planes, planes, and planes. Paint the plane changes. Paint big planes first, then smaller planes. Look at the Asaro head, one has big planes and the other has smaller planes. Remember that approach.
4. We might need to take some caricature class.