Painting & Drawing Workshops

Hone your skills with intensive specialized instruction!

Shane periodically teaches workshops with demonstrations and personalized instruction as a way to bring more specialized attention to disciplines of representational realism in drawing and painting. Workshops are a fun way for students to mutually benefit from step-by-step instruction as they are facing the challenges of a similar subject.

Figure Drawing
One-Day Workshop

figure drawing workshop with clothed model
Figure drawing workshop with clothed model at Shane McDonald Studios

Figure Drawing Workshop
(with live semi-nude model)

Ages 12 - Adult
Date and time to be announced

$70 (3.5 hours, includes model fee)

LIMITED TO 9 STUDENTS.

Students will be need to bring:

  • vine charcoal sticks
  • soft and extra soft charcoal pencils
  • compressed charcoal sticks
  • light pastel/conté crayon
  • assortment of blending stumps (tortillons)
  • kneaded eraser
  • 18 x 24 inches newsprint pad (smooth finish preferred)
  • 18 x 24 inches white drawing paper/pad

Shane will cover the following ways to address the drawing of the human figure from a live model. More details TBA.

Agenda
  • 30-minute lecture/exercise/demonstration of general human proportion
  • several gesture drawings (for movement, sense of gravity, and scale)
  • a few 10-minute drawings (for angles of armature, positive/negative space, center of weight, and contour lines)
  • a couple of 20-minute drawings (delineating light and shadow to help define depth and cover challenges of foreshortening, hands and feet)
  • one 25-minute drawing (a chance to bring it all together)
Payment and Registration

Pre-payment is required to register. Want to pay by cash or check? Email Shane McDonald or leave a voicemail at (770) 218-0676 to let him know you're stopping by to pay or that the check is in the mail.

Plein Air Painting
Mini-Workshop

painting instructor teaches plein air painting for his students
Shane demonstrates en plein air during a workshop

Plein Air Painting Workshop

Ages 13 - Adult
Date: Date and time to be announced
Location: to be announced

LIMITED TO 6 STUDENTS

Step-by-step guidance painting the landscape from life using oils or acrylics

We’ll meet at 9 a.m. at the Adairsville, GA location (address and directions will be supplied for enrollees). We’ll premix some colors for the palette and paint until noon. Shane will demonstrate to get everyone started. A critique will take place during the last half-hour. Students will need to bring their own easels and supplies.

Recommended Supplies
  • your easel (light-weight tripod easel, a half-size or full size French easel, or a pochade box easel is recommended)
  • at least two of the following sized painting grounds: 8x10, 9x12, 11x14, or 12x16 inches canvas board, painting panel, canvas pad/oil paper, or stretched canvas
  • a disposable paper palette pad (or what you already own and have successfully used before en plein air)
  • two or three brushes (long-handled, long-bristled recommended with brush heads ranging between 1/8-inch to 1-inch)
  • diamond-head metal palette knife
  • metal or solvent-safe plastic container mineral spirits
  • rags or paper towels
  • Oil Colors (a simplified palette—but feel free to bring more colors):
    • Titanium White
    • Cadmium Yellow Light
    • Viridian Green
    • Ultramarine Blue
    • Permanent Alizarine Crimson
      [or Quinacridone Red]
Payment and Registration

Pre-payment is required to register. Want to pay by cash or check? Email Shane McDonald or leave a voicemail at (770) 218-0676 to let him know you're stopping by to pay or that the check is in the mail.

Portrait Painting Using Oils
Workshop

portrait painting of a man from life by Shane McDonald
Shane paints a live male model for a portrait demonstration

Portrait Painting Workshop

We'll work 3 hours each day from a live model

Ages 12 - Adult
Date and time to be announced

LIMITED TO 6 STUDENTS.
Experience painting with oils is highly suggested.
Students will be need to bring:

Step-by-step guidance painting a portrait from a live model

Shane will teach participants to draw and paint the human head from a live model with accurate proportions, tonal values, and color to depict a convincing three-dimensional illusion. Using Shane’s method of efficient palette mixing of flesh tones, students will map their drawings accurately and block in lights and shadows using a tonal "couche" layer before painting the model's subtle facial features. Lastly, students will refine and render the intricate forms of facial features, neck-line clothing, and hair.

  • a sketchbook at least 11 x 14 inches
  • graphite pencil and kneaded eraser
  • two 8x10 or 9x12 inches canvas boards for studies
  • two 14 x 11 or 16 x 12 inches canvas, linen, or smooth wood panels for final portrait
  • glass or wooden palette
  • selection of 4-5 long-handled brushes (filberts, flats, and rounds) ranging in widths of 1/8th-inch to 1-inch
  • metal or glass jar for Gamsol mineral spirits
  • Oil colors:
    • Titanium White
    • Cadmium Yellow Light
    • Cadmium Red Medium
    • Alizarin Crimson
    • Ultramarine Blue
    • Cerulean Blue
    • Sap Green

Pre-payment is required to register. Want to pay by cash or check? Email Shane McDonald or leave a voicemail at (770) 218-0676 to let him know you're stopping by to pay or that the check is in the mail.