On my website I just posted a 36 step progression of the portrait painting I demonstrated during my two week workshop in Atlanta this past August.
You can see that as the painting of Moria develops, it goes from general to specific. I feel this time honored approach of working large to small creates a genuine sense of aliveness and immediacy in paintings.
Working from life provides an artist with the opportunity to try to catch lightning in a bottle. It's never not thrilling.
Illustrated below are examples of the beginning and the end. Here's the link to view the whole enchilada:
http://www.fineartportrait.com/workshop_demo_2.html