Initially trained as a sculptor, Neal studied ceramics at Royal College of Art and worked as a designer at Royal Worcester before teaching ceramics at Hornsey College of Art (later Middlesex University), being made Emeritus professor. Throughout his time as designer and lecturer he practised figurative sculpture, and since 1990 has worked full time as a sculptor. As well as portrait heads in bronze and terra cotta, he has carried out several commissions for public sculpture, including a life size, three figure group in the West End for the Grosvenor Estate, a War Memorial for his home town of Dereham, Norfolk, and a large bronze figure for Tiptree, Essex.