Registration Opens Saturday, May 16, 2026
work from life like the old masters, from photos, or from your imaginative sketches
get feedback from your fellow students as well as from Shane
Shane McDonald: Over 25 Years of Fine Art Mastery: As a professional painter based in Marietta, GA, Shane McDonald has dedicated over two decades to the pursuit of representational drawing and painting excellence. His artwork, ranging from intricate portraiture to expansive landscapes, is defined by a deep understanding of light, color, and anatomical precision.
Ages 13 - Adult | up to 10 students in each class
View Art Materials & Palette Recommendations
Shane wants to tailor his instruction to you. To maximize your class experience,
e-mail him two or three
images of your artwork and discuss your goals and inspirations. He’ll recommend your first project and list
the best materials for your first class.
All classes are held at studio K2 of the Artisan Resource Center. Current students have priority for registration. Public links to register will be available May 16.
| MON 7pm Ongoing Class $240 |
TUE | WED | THU 9:30am Ongoing Class $240 |
FRI 9:30am Ongoing Class $240 |
SAT | SUN 1:30pm Ongoing Class $240 |
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| JUN 18 ① |
JUN 19 ① |
JUN 21 ① |
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| JUN 22 ① |
JUN 25 ② |
JUN 26 ② |
JUN 28 ② |
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| JUN 29 ② |
No Class JUL 2 |
No Class JUL 3 |
No Class JUL 5 |
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| No Class JUL 6 |
JUL 9 ③ |
JUL 10 ③ |
JUL 12 ③ |
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| JUL 13 ③ |
JUL 16 ④ |
JUL 17 ④ |
JUL 19 ④ |
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| JUL 20 ④ |
JUL 23 ⑤ |
JUL 24 ⑤ |
JUL 26 ⑤ |
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| JUL 27 ⑤ |
JUL 30 ⑥ |
JUL 31 ⑥ |
AUG 2 ⑥ |
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| AUG 3 ⑥ |
AUG 6 ⑦ |
AUG 7 ⑦ |
AUG 9 ⑦ |
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| AUG 10 ⑦ |
All of these classes are held at studio K2 of the Artisan Resource Center.
| MON 7pm Ongoing Class $210 |
TUE | WED | THU 9:30am Ongoing Class $210 |
FRI 9:30am Ongoing Class $175 |
SAT | SUN 1:30pm Ongoing Class $140 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| APR 12 ① |
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| APR 13 ① |
APR 16 ① |
APR 17 ① |
APR 19 ② |
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| APR 20 ② |
APR 23 ② |
APR 24 ② |
APR 26 ③ |
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| APR 27 ③ |
APR 30 ③ |
No Class MAY 1 |
MAY 3 ④ |
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| MAY 4 ④ |
MAY 7 ④ |
MAY 8 ③ |
No Class MAY 10 |
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| MAY 11 ⑤ |
MAY 14 ⑤ |
MAY 15 ④ |
No Class MAY 17 |
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| MAY 18 ⑥ |
MAY 21 ⑥ |
MAY 22 ⑤ |
No Class MAY 24 |
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| No classes Memorial Day Weekend, May 23 through May 27 |
MAY 28 ⑦ |
MAY 29 ⑥ |
MAY 31 ⑤ |
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| JUN 1 ⑦ |
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Students are expected to bring their own ideas, sketches, or photo references, and art materials to each weekly class meeting. It’s encouraged to work at an easel vertically or semi-vertically (for watercolorists).
Periodically, 30-40 minutes into the first hour, Shane demonstrates a technique or concept for the class to follow. He explains and demonstrates exercises enabling each student’s personal style to shine through. Topics vary based on class interests.
After each exercise, Shane individually critiques students’ project progress, providing recommendations, encouraging comments, and answering questions. He sketches ideas for students struggling to visualize artwork solutions and demonstrates techniques on their work with permission.
Shane’s classes are for students with some art instruction in drawing or painting, emphasizing perceptive drawing skills for those seeking to build observational techniques.
Start with the materials you own based on Shane’s recommendations from your email consultation. He’ll provide further instructions based on your project needs. Most of Shane’s students use materials on this general list. For a brief overview, tap below:
Shane encourages students to paint standing up to avoid getting too close to the canvas and bogging down on insignificant details. Class easels are provided for up to 12 students.
Shane also works with watercolor and gouache, preferring them for their compact and lightweight supplies, and the media’s suitability for studies and visualizing ideas. Watercolor pigments are bound with gum arabic, allowing reconstitution and manipulation with water. It quickly teaches color mixing and transparency/opacity concepts. Watercolors can be a natural and economical transition to oil painting for students accustomed to pencil drawing.
Please see the drawing tab to learn about pastels. Shane frequently uses them in his portraits, appealing to him for their immediacy.
Oil, Acrylic and Watercolor Pigments (or their color equivalents) listed below are essential for limited-palette paintings in most lighting situations. Students are welcome to purchase the often less-expensive "hue" versions of colors. This "palette" of colors represent a warm and cool version of the primary colors plus some secondary colors and useful neutrals. Other colors can be bought in miniature tubes or later as needed.
OILS:
CHOOSE ONE:
ACRYLICS:
CHOOSE ONE:
ACRYLICS: It's not necessary to bring any water or acrylic mediums if using acrylics. Shane will supply a water container for you. He may recommend the purchase of additional acrylic painting mediums for some rare projects.
OILS: Solvent and a container for it will be necessary.
The painting substrate is best chosen by your specific goals in the class. Please e-mail Shane before purchasing new painting substrates such as stretched canvas.
Make it easy on yourself by keeping your supplies together. A rolling travel bag or a tackle box can hold paints, brushes, palette knife, rags, a jar for mineral spirits, painting medium, and other small tools.
Although most students in Shane's classes paint, he believes that painting is an extension of drawing—only in color. Students who struggle with capturing the accurate representation of objects are encouraged to use traditional drawing media as much as possible. He encourages students to develop a habit of creating thumbnail sketches or color studies of their designs before proceeding on their larger drawing or painting projects. This serves as a tool to bring the elements of the design together at once, allowing potential hurdles to be discovered and solved before or while working on its relative project.
Graphite is the lead material used in our #2 yellow pencils used in elementary school. It's a good choice for quick sketching of ideas and thumbnail designs in our sketchbook. Shane prefers using this media on small projects because it tends not to spread over large paper surfaces as quickly. It can be used for highly detailed drawings because the pencil point can sharpened well. Shane prefers use of a kneaded eraser with pencil, and he recommends a range of weights if creating a tonal value drawing. Blending tools such as stumps/tortillons can be used for blending pencil strokes. Powdered graphite and slightly-pigmented sticks can also be purchased for use on larger works. Graphite is best used on smooth white papers because it has a sheen that can reduce contrast against colored papers.
Charcoals are Shane's black/white medium of choice. It's faster because the particles spread easily across the paper with many different types of tools and techniques. It's a great medium for grayscale (black/white) tonal drawings.
Soft pastels (sometimes referred to as chalk pastels) are a dry pigment medium formed into a crayon or stick. Each brand has a slight variation of softness and pigment variation, but they are usually interchangeable. They are applied in layers on paper that have a "tooth" (rougher surface) in the paper fibers or a sandy grit applied to the paper surface. Blending tools can be used to mix colors from various layers of color on the drawing/painting surface.
Want to learn about mixing colors? Pastels are a great way to learn about color mixing for those transitioning from monochromatic drawing media to color media—including paint! Pastellists should bring a complete set of at least 24 colors in medium-to-soft (non-oil-based) pastels. Some pastel pencils are also recommended. Contact Shane (E-mail) for more information on purchasing and using pastels.
Make it easy on yourself by keeping your supplies together. A small tackle box can hold pencils, graphite or charcoal sticks, stumps and tortillons, erasers, white and sepia conté, an ink stylus, pen nibs, perhaps a short straight-edge, and a sharpener. If you like to work large, it may be a good idea to keep your large pads of paper in a portfolio case. The other supplies may fit well in a zippered pouch.
Shane can help you achieve your desired effect in painting through references.
From the very first class, it was clear that I had found a rare and special teacher. Shane is a truly talented artist whose talent shines through his paintings and teaching style! His portraiture captures not just a likeness, but the very soul of his subjects. He has equal proficiency in landscape and figurative art.
Shane prepared my son for more challenging things in high school. I believe that young people who are serious about developing their artistic talents would benefit from receiving instruction from Shane.
Shane is one of the most knowledgeable fine art teachers I have ever known! His ability to share his knowledge in a formative way helped me to hone in on each aspect of a specific skill allowing me to complete one segment of learning at a time. Whether it be drawing or painting, he allowed plenty of time to exercise my newly found artistic expression thus allowing the freedom be able to take the knowledge home and practice.
