[Claudemir Bonfim]

This are my favorite highlights from the article. I've read it some time ago, but it's still like fresh ink to my eyes.

"Photographs and reality are just night and day. In reality, the information is all there. A photograph is just kind of a hint."

That being the case, and given that Shanks works traditionally, why not make preliminary drawings instead of photos?

That's no good either, he replied.

"I almost never do drawings, because I have found over the years that doing something in one medium and translating into another doesn't work. I like to conceive a painting in real scale and in color," he explained, noting that the Italian baroque master Caravaggio
worked similarly.

Shanks said that once the posing sessions begin, he might begin the portrait from scratch. "That's probably what will happen, because I can do more from life and get further in a hour than I can in 20 hours from photographs."