Jane Radstrom Blog

Sketchbook Pages!

2011-07-11T17:54:00.003-04:00

Are up on my new blog: Jane Makes.
Please save the new link http://janemakes.tumblr.com/.

Life Drawing Sketches

2011-07-05T00:19:00.003-04:00

Some drawings from the model at the Illustration Academy!
5 mins:

10 mins:

15 mins:

Salacious girl sketches

2011-06-28T19:44:00.002-04:00

I was going through some old photo shoot folders and did a bit of gratuitous girl sketching.

e-card?

2011-06-26T21:22:00.003-04:00

This bunch of BAMF artists cam to visit last weekend. I made this e-card sorta thing to commemorate. <3 my crew. Adam Volker, Sarah Watts, Erin McGuire, Drew Olson.

Visiting the Illustration Academy

2011-06-25T23:04:00.006-04:00

I am in Kansas City this week, helping out as a guest instructor at The Illustration Academy. This year's workshop is being held in the brand new Art Department studio space on the fifth floor of an old factory building. Holy cow, I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful/amazing/perfect studio space. 10,000 square feet with panoramic city view windows spanning three sides and a light controlled area on the other side for projecting classes, shooting reference, etc. There's also a full kitchen, break room, office, flat file storage room... *swoon Just take a look for yourself.

Sterling Hundley is here along with George Pratt, Mark & John English. CF Payne arrives tomorrow. I'll post more pictures of happenings throughout the week!

Oil Portrait

2011-06-24T00:33:00.002-04:00

It's been... too long since I did a traditional alla prima oil portrait. The model that was scheduled for tonight got a flat tire, so Orlando was kind enough to pose. It's fun to muck around in oil paint again! Although, I see a lot that I would change. About 3 hours.

ImagineFX feature

2011-06-08T15:22:00.005-04:00

I have a workshop/tutorial article in the upcoming issue of ImagineFX! It's 4 pages of step by step on the pastel/mixed media technique. It will be out on news stands in July.

Also, the demo movie that I filmed earlier this year was reviewed in the June issue! 4.5 stars! =)

A thank you and a self portrait - digital sketches

2011-06-08T15:00:00.006-04:00

More therapeutic digital sketching. One is a Thank you for Auxanna who made me an amazing cloth matryoshka as a parting gift! I spent 10 days in St. Petersburg/Moscow last month visiting museums, opera, ballet, historic sites and my friend who is soon to be returning from the Academy of Arts with his painting MFA... !!! Here are some shots from studio open houses at the Academy (also known as the Ilya Repin School of Art).

If we are friends on FB, there are lots more pics of Russia there. The other digi sketch above is a half done self portrait with pig tails and frustrated face. I might finish it someday, but the face is really what I was interested in so it is probably abandoned at this point.

I have a new blog in the works, this one hasn't been getting much love because I spend so much of my time on other projects... like learning (and failing repeatedly) how to make mozzarella cheese. The new blog is going to be art, design, inspiration, and FOOD! / recipes. More on that soon.

Three Pretty Girls

2011-05-08T19:18:00.002-04:00

Still experimenting with color, edges and "exposure". Pretty girls are harder to do than men I think. They certainly seem to take longer.

Sketchie

2011-04-21T14:34:00.006-04:00

This is a bit off topic. I think it's summer now? Something totally invented, just for fun. Those towels sure could use some trim or patterns.

Another Portrait

2011-04-19T02:14:00.002-04:00

This one I sort of ran out of steam on, got sleeeepy. I might revisit it tomorrow. About the same - hour and a half.

Quick digi portrait

2011-04-14T02:53:00.003-04:00

1.5 hours, speed portrait of the unfailingly sarcastic Brian Webster. Just for fun.

Art Erotica

2011-03-27T16:40:00.003-04:00

Several of us TAD artists donated our time last night to provide some entertainment at a big event benefiting AIDS services in Austin. The event was crazy! The venue is an giant old power plant, industrial, indoors, raw and huge. There were about 1,400 people there. The event has been a tradition in Austin for almost 20 years (?) and as the theme is "Art Erotica" you can imagine the craziness that ensues. Here's a shot of Francis and Orlando drawing away, that macbook is my set up and I had a big projection screen looming behind the models. The finished pieces were auctioned off for charity. The picture does not capture even 10% of the crazy erotica going on... Fun experience! Here is one of the sketches I did.

Pastel drawing from a model

2011-03-26T18:41:00.002-04:00

We had a model in for a long pose (about 3 hours) this week. I had something that I really liked in the first hour, then killed/overworked the colors and spent an hour and a half trying to bring some life back to them. Mixed results. Fun, though! Next time I will have to remember to stop when I am ahead.

Trailer

2011-03-24T11:12:00.005-04:00

Part 2 of my Demo movie was just released, along with a trailer!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLnrafiZnDc

Speed paintings from Chroma

2011-03-15T22:37:00.004-04:00

Last night The Art Department provided visual entertainment for a SXSW party at The Mohawk, "Chroma". It's a huge venue with really cool layout - indoor, outdoor, dancefloor, multi-level space that allows for a lot of various stimulation at once. We had a fleet of models decked out to represent Chroma wearing crazy colorful hair, pasties and giant feather eyelashes (not much else). Francis Vallejo (Austin POD leader) and Orlando Sanchez did live body painting, many of the students were life drawing from the models and several professionals and instructors (including myself) got down on some digital painting on huge projection screens looming over the party. Multiple rooms of good live music and DJs, too. Fun night!! Phil Holland and Aaron Fagerstrom were there documenting so I can't wait to see the pics!

Here are some of the sketches I did throughout the night. Some are done from a live model (sea foam green girl) and the rest from imagination. Crazy parties are not the place for doing your best work, but they are excellent for "working" while having a good time.

Mixed Media Figure Painting Demo

2011-03-14T17:20:00.004-04:00

I filmed a figure painting demo movie which just launched on ConceptArt.org & The Art Department! 2 hours of mixed media instruction. What an honor to have the opportunity to teach about what I love.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=211786

Here is the description from the site:
"Jane Radstrom welcomes the viewer to watch her as she uses pastel, gamsol, and oil to create an image of a seated female.

As Jane says in the video, she wants to be a creative participant for the whole process. Rather than copying exactly what s in front of her, a photograph in this case, she uses her subject as a jumping off point. The final image is only reached through a process of problem solving, editing, and modification. Throughout the video, Jane employs artistic principles such as calligraphy, contrast, edges, and composition to help guide her and achieve a good outcome.

Not only is Jane a talented artist, but she also has the gift of being able to understand and articulate all the choices she makes while working. That is the real heart of this video, regardless of which medium you work in."

WIP

2011-02-28T21:54:00.002-05:00

Another digi portrait in progress. This one is going to be more finished, I can't wait. I've even been working on some some custom lettering... Except I have so many other things that must be done in the next few days, I guess that I'll have to hold my horses a bit.

...

2011-02-25T19:14:00.003-05:00

I really don't know how I feel about this. Trying to mess with my self portrait more, and more, and more.

More digital portraits

2011-02-23T16:33:00.004-05:00

These are from last week. The handsome fellow in the sunglasses (Will) took 1 hour and the handsome fellow in flannel (Andy) took 2. Doing quick paintings is satisfying in the same way as having a little snack. More in the works!

Self Portrait

2011-02-13T22:03:00.006-05:00

It's been a while. For both digital painting and self portraits. This was kind of therapeutic, maybe I will mess around with digital some more. =)

Another big drawing/painting

2011-02-03T19:39:00.003-05:00

More mixed media experiments, same size as the last one - 25" x 38".
The process of this was actually filmed, and will be available to download as a demo on conceptart.org before too long!

5-A-Day: Amazing Allie

2011-01-27T01:44:00.003-05:00

5-A-Day: Assortment

2011-01-25T21:12:00.002-05:00

Some assorted works, from small 2 minute acrylic gestures to 40 minute larger pastel drawing.

5-A-Day: Thelma

2011-01-24T11:06:00.005-05:00

Eep, I got caught up with the TAD (The Art Department) workshop down here in Austin. George Pratt, John Foster and Anita Kunz are critiquing the student's assignments from last week right in front of me right now. It's so nice to have a 3 week art-gasm!

The drawings today are a tribute to one of my personal favorite models to draw - we'll call her Thelma. She takes beautifully relaxed, languid, natural poses that I really dig.

Just for fun

2011-01-20T15:52:00.003-05:00

A warm up that I did before my drawing demo here in Austin, TX. I worked on this off and on throughout the day, probably ~2.5 hours overall. This is a further exploration with combining Nupastels and Oils on paper, 25" x 38". I want to do more of these, and get much more wild with the colors.

5-A-Day

2011-01-20T06:01:00.002-05:00

5-A-Day: Tribute to Mr. Jackson

2011-01-18T23:37:00.003-05:00

Here is another tribute to one of our regular models, the fantastical Mr. Jackson.

Something old

2011-01-18T03:00:00.003-05:00

Looking for something down in my old files I found some paintings that I don't think I ever posted. I did these 2-3 years ago. They were commissioned by a fellow very interested in Asian art who wanted to organize a show of paintings commenting on contemporary asian art. Sort of a weird idea, he had concepts about the commentary and basically wanted to hire painters to execute the concepts so that he could shop around the show. I was hungry for any kind of commission and agreed to do the paintings for a nearly ridiculous price. The experience left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, which is probably why I never posted these. They are Takeshi Murakami and Ai Wei Wei dressed up as the Ingres painting of Napoleon, switching out all of the details for references to the artists. Ingres and I do not share much in common in technique, with my love of painterly texture and loose fresh brushwork pretty much at odds with the tight perfection of his licked surfaces. Luckily, the client was not looking for exact replication so much as getting the idea across - straight copying Ingres would have driven me even further up the wall. These are big, 4 feet tall by 3 feet wide. Anyhow, hopefully these provide a nice little break from the constant drawing posts!

5-A-Day: Tribute to Ms. Mary

2011-01-17T11:22:00.002-05:00

These drawings are from various sessions, a tribute to one of our best models. We'll call her Ms. Mary. Truth be told, I have enough happy drawings of her to do this tribute 3 times over.

5-A-Day: Silly Ones

2011-01-16T22:29:00.003-05:00

Some sillier one minute poses. I should be silly more often! A good friend, Dustin D'Arnault, just visited us in Austin and I was totally inspired by his stylization. Check it out: http://www.heydusty.com/

5-A-Day: 10s and 15s

2011-01-15T22:55:00.001-05:00

Longer poses, 10-15 minutes.

5-A-Day: 2 Minutes Again

2011-01-14T12:12:00.002-05:00

Some more quickies - 2 minute poses, lots of different models.

Portrait

2011-01-13T10:34:00.004-05:00

This was the first time that I tried putting a bit of oil paint over a pastel drawing. She was nice enough to pose for a quick portrait (40 min). Bonus: a bit of the Art Department studio + trey working on his speed painting.

5-A-Day: Kansas City Subculture

2011-01-12T11:24:00.002-05:00

Drawings From Dr. Sketchy's and other events. Sketchy's does theme contests, things like "turn one of our model's poses into a romance novel cover", which results in some funny stuff and some very, very hasty type. Ouch.

5-A-Day: 10 Minute Poses

2011-01-11T14:53:00.004-05:00

Progressing along... these are 10 minute drawings, the longest that we typically do in a session.

5-A-Day: 5 Minute Poses

2011-01-10T13:55:00.003-05:00

5 Minute poses often end up somewhere in between, but occasionally I get a good one.

5-A-Day: 2 Minute Poses

2011-01-09T23:14:00.003-05:00

Just arrived in Austin, TX! 3 weeks of art workshop -yum. I'll be doing some figure drawing demos, too. Here are some quick drawings - 2 minutes.

5-A-Day: Acrylic Drawings

2011-01-08T12:01:00.005-05:00

Uh-oh, it's only day 3 and I am already tired of looking at pastel drawing posts. Here is something different to break up the monotony... A couple of months ago, I bought a pad of really big paper (28x40) so I could try to get some of the same qualities in paint rather than pastel. These are the same pose lengths (5-15 minutes), and are done with acrylic and brushes. Also a bit of oil pastel for some of the lines. I'm still working on some finished pieces that are somewhat along these lines, but with pastel and oil paint rather than acrylic. With the oil, I can work on paper over pastels without it wrinkling up the way these did.

5-A-Day: Drawings from this week

2011-01-07T16:29:00.002-05:00

The nude model was from Wed morning, the other from this afternoon. Yes, I actually managed to take pictures immediately after finishing a session! See this new leaf? I am turning it over!

Hello again

2011-01-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

Whew! Just took pictures of a BUNCH of drawings done since summer. I'm thinking that if I break down the big job of getting them ready to post to just a few a day it will be EZ. So, for the month of January i'll post 5 drawings a day. Like the 5-A-Day Fruit and Veggie campaign. Here we go...

Mixed Media from today

2010-11-19T18:53:00.004-05:00

I really need to take photos of what I have been up to lately... Thanks Andy for sending me the pic of this one so I could put it up! I have been exploring various media during figure drawing, trying some things out for a series that is in the works. This drawing is from this morning. It is 26" x 40" Nupastel and Oils on paper. Ms. Fancy was the model, this was a 1 hour pose.

Cadaver Drawing

2010-10-25T01:14:00.003-04:00

Snuck into a cadaver lab with Trey and The Art Department guys last week. I've never seen a dead body before. These had been partially dissected. The heads especially were really strange. Most of them were cut in half down the face and the skin was cut off except around the eyes, nose and lips. I'm not actually sure what was visible underneath - not bone, maybe fat? I've been told that drawing muscles from dead bodies is not very useful for learning anatomy, and it is true. The muscles are all grey, the skin is grey, the bones are sort of grey... it's hard to distinguish anything. I will never forget the experience, though.

Figure Drawing in Kansas City

2010-09-13T13:44:00.002-04:00

Our open drawing session in the West Bottoms will be on Monday nights now. Come draw!

Portrait Drawing

2010-07-23T11:19:00.004-04:00

This drawing was done as a gift to my neighbors who just got married. Congratulations Erin and Jaysun!
The last time I did anything like this must have been in college when we had portrait nights! Except this was done from a compilation of several photos from facebook. Feels good to get back to this. Nupastel is a great drawing media, it eliminates a lot of time rendering.

Some collaborations

2010-07-20T13:00:00.004-04:00

Trey Bryan and I worked on these during the Illustration Academy here in Kansas City. We haven't done very many collaborations, so it was fun to trade off on these paintings, working all three at once and "tapping out" for the other person to step up when we weren't sure where to go next. It's interesting to do because somehow other people's problems are easier to see and solve, so allowing someone else to create some new marks/choices presented a clarified direction each time.

I like each where they are now, but are they finished? Hmmm...

Draw

2010-05-14T22:20:00.002-04:00

Whew! I am photographing all of my good life drawings from this year. It is a marathon. I should not have let it go so long. Will post a big update soon. In the meantime, here are some drawings from this week:

Update

2010-04-04T14:19:00.008-04:00

I have not posted in a bit, but have been super busy! Travel, drawing, designing, and involved in some really cool events. Trey posted on his blog all about SXSW where we were drawing as part of the kickoff party at The Mohawk, and at the Screenburn convention booth with TAD and Massive Black. I got the plague and was out for the last few days, but still had a killer time.

We wanted to do more, so Trey set up some cool venues here in Kansas City. The first was last Friday, during First Fridays in the Crossroads arts district. Kansas City has the best FFs of any city I've been to! They are packed, with lots going on besides the gallery openings: mucho live music, street performers, bar hopping, etc. We did not take enough pictures, but at least I took a break to snap a few!

It was a great weekend for events, with spring starting KC is coming to life again. We drew for a second night in a row at Artopia, a huge celebration of the arts held in a retro movie theater near downtown. With 5 spaces inside and a large tent outside, there was a lot going on all at once! A different vibe in each area. Locally produced film, musicians, DJs, live painting, food, free Shlafly beer and Shaker's vodka, runway fashion show, African Drum band, Voler Theives of Flight aerealists, a whole troupe of fire dancers... and, I'm sure more that I missed. We totally failed to take any pictures of us drawing during this event, but we did get some shots of the other performances.

More Artopia photos on Flickr (mostly of Voler - Trey has a big crush on those girls).

Teaching

2010-01-07T14:35:00.001-05:00

Exciting news for me: Academy of Art University in San Fran contacted me a few weeks ago, and has hired me to teach Figure Drawing Online in their Fashion Illustration Degree program! Their online education system seems very well developed, and I am quite excited to be teaching in my favorite topic. So, 2010 looks like a good year already.

Crafty Fashion Glasses

2010-01-07T13:57:00.005-05:00

Happy New Years!!

Finally, I am home and settled from Holiday traveling. Probably my favorite thing about the holiday season are all of the opportunities for crafty gifty projects! This year, I gave baked gifts, with a new foray in to candy making: Dulce de Leche Caramels, Orange-Almond Biscotti with White Chocolate Glaze, Snowflake Sugar Cookies, and the favorite Chocolate Mint Wafers. Unfortunately, I was in such a rush to get it all made right before leaving town that I didn't get to take pictures or make the little booklet of illustrated recipes I had planned. =( Next year.

For family gifts, I decided to make custom sets of etched glassware. Using etching cream to create designs is surprisingly easy! My favorite set turned out to be these "Designer" fashion glasses that I made for Trey's brother the label whore, Beau.

Sketch ideas, transfer the good ones to sticky contact paper:

Cut out the designs.

Carefully stick the contact paper to the glass, then clean the surface with some glass cleaner to remove finger prints. Glob on the etching cream. Wait 5 min, rinse it off and peel off the sticker.

Viola!

One session

2009-12-09T00:49:00.006-05:00

A few weeks ago we had a great model and I sort of liked all of my drawings from that session. Usually I only like a handful. Well, I thought that I would post them in order from 2-3 minute poses to 15 minute ones. Kinda hard to tell the 5s and 7s apart.

*edit: I just realized something. Lovely poses... and it looks like the model only faced my direction once! No wonder I like the session so much. I tend to prefer the nice simple shapes and mystery of back views.

draw draw draw

2009-12-09T00:30:00.010-05:00

It's been a fun two months. It went by so fast! Here is a considerable update of figure drawings. 2-15 minute poses. I've also been doing quite a bit of graphic design work, but not enough painting at all. Bit of a rut in that direction, but here's A few in progress at least.

Even more figure

2009-10-25T22:27:00.005-04:00

I had a great time last week when 4 friends came to visit. Ted Kinsella, Robyn Hyzy and Andrew Wright from Chicago and Sarah Watts from ATL - all illustrators. Really inspiring crew.

Now, my kitty is ill again. Her blood disorder started acting up and she had to visit the vet twice last week. =( I think she's starting to feel better and I hope that we can get the disorder under control, as there is no real cure but a possibility for long term management.

Anyhow... I have been doing some drawing and have other projects in the pipeline. Also working some odd jobs to help pay for vet bills. ><

Return from Adventure

2009-10-06T01:17:00.008-04:00

Pictures and some of the paintings from our road trip. We met up with my old friend Leon Okun, who caught an overnight bus from San Diego to Santa Fe. (Leon is back in Russia now for his 5th year at the Imperial Academy of Art in St. Petersburg.) We all stayed with the lovely Larissa Neto and enjoyed the hundreds of galleries on Canyon Rd. Of course, we couldn't miss the Nicolai Fechin house and museum an hour away in Taos. It was a disappointment, though. Apparently they've had to sell much of their collection off to other museums, so there were no drawings or landscapes, and only minor portraits on display. The house was filled with his incredible wood work, though!

After that we drove to Sedona, AZ which quickly became one of my favorite places in the US. It's an enchanted canyon carved by a river into the red and gold rock mountains, lushly forested and wrapped around hidden ruins of the wild, wild west and even older ruins of ancient Indians. Leon said the red rock has ores which give off magnetic energy. I felt the pull. We camped for 4 nights next to the river and took freezing baths in a deep lagoon. Every morning we crawled out of the tent before dawn to catch the morning light, then painted, picnic'd and hiked until the sun went down. We'd get back to camp in the dark, build a fire & chill out drinking wine while grilling dinner.

We set up camp a second time at the Grand Canyon for another 5 days of painting. It was hard. Like painting all of the New York City from above while the sun plays tricks on you. The colors were incredible, if fleeting. Wild life seemed undisturbed by the thousands of tourists around them. A herd of Elk passed through the parking lot and held up traffic, and we saw wild pigs, all kinds of birds, plenty of deer, and just missed a big horn sheep. Next time Trey and I want to back pack down into the canyon with quick-drying media and big sketchbooks.

The final, farthest stop was San Diego to drop Leon off and say hi to my old teachers at Watts Atelier, and Ron and Vanessa Lemen. We got to see a collection of Russian student work that Leon brought to America for a show, which was really incredible. Blows the pants off anything done at Ringling. Really gorgeous drawing, but also wonderful compositions and color pallets.

After we said goodbye, a 12 hour drive took us along the Mexican border, through Yuma, up through Phoenix and finally back to Santa Fe. This time we also got to visit with Kyler Dannels and McClean Kendree, who just moved out there.

About 5,000 miles and 60 paintings later, we arrived back in Kansas City. Check out Trey's blog in the next couple of days for some of his favorite paintings from the trip.

getting dressed

2009-09-06T23:08:00.002-04:00

The model last week was great! She was tons of fun to work with. Here are some drawings done during the session, and from photos afterward.

Today is going to be a good day

2009-08-26T09:18:00.002-04:00

On the agenda today:

- Morning Figure drawing group
- Lunch
- Tour Boulevard Beer Factory
- Afternoon studio session with a Model
- Painting experiments with wood planar and steel wool

:) ... :D

In progress

2009-08-24T03:15:00.002-04:00

I really appreciate the great reception for the yellow and black painting! Thanks for all the feedback. I'm excited to put together a set of similar figures. Here's a progress shot from my studio.

More figure

2009-08-24T02:56:00.004-04:00

As I was taking these pics and looking back through the drawings I realized that life drawing sessions are probably the most fun I have. Here's another batch!

+ more girls

2009-08-03T20:22:00.005-04:00

Starting a series of paintings of women, or continuing the one that I have started so often in the last year and never gotten very far into. Here is a work in progress, about 3' x 3', plus some more fun quick sketches.

Also, thanks to Katrina, Jami, Jessica and Erin for posing!

Last week Trey & I were digging through Spivy's Used Book store for treasures. I found a design magazine from the 1964 with a student interior design contest. One student from each major college at the time was selected, and their design printed along with a little square head shot. The pictures are priceless! I decided to use them for warm ups and experimenting. Here are the first two:

Life Drawing

2009-07-20T00:57:00.005-04:00

Mostly 10 minute drawings from life.
Tasia also sat for a 50 minute portrait, done in acrylic. Thank you Tasia and Emily!

impatience

2009-07-13T01:57:00.002-04:00

More little sketches, these are acrylic instead of oil.

Designin'

2009-07-08T12:23:00.007-04:00

I've been designing promotional materials for Cutting Loose Salon. They're opening an offshoot next door with a more youthful, urban vibe and lower prices. Here are some of the postcards and etc! (BTW - I didn't design the logo, that had already been done. I think it's smart and fun, though!)

Sarah Plus

2009-07-07T13:20:00.003-04:00

I've had fun this week painting in the studio & out in the town. Still trying to discover an interesting direction to continue exploring in detail. Here are some from the last week.

Something old, somethings new

2009-06-26T11:57:00.009-04:00

Trey and I have been doing daily speed paint-offs of still lives. I'm into flowers, and he has gone along with it. Here are mine, Trey should post his soon on his blog so then you can check them out and decide who "won" each day.

All are 30 minutes - 1 hour.

In other news, we just took a great trip to the mountains, delivering Mark English's new solo show to his gallery in Telluride, Co. Everyone told us that Telluride is one of the most beautiful places on earth. They weren't kidding!

After that, a slight detour on the way back allowed us to spend the weekend with Matt Dahllun &
Megan Ingrahm in Boulder.

Going back a few weeks... our first weekend in Kansas City we went to theWest 18th St. Fasion Show (which was strange and super cool), where we met Emily and Kathryn. Emily assists in the Asian and American Departments at the Nelson Museum and Katheryn works with an Ad Agency. They came over this week and posed for us to paint. The poses were great, but the painting doesn't live up. Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures while they were here, but my favorite part of the painting ended up being the chair...

_____________________________

Finally, something old: some illustrations I did about 6 months ago for SRQ Lux magazine. The art director liked some of my digital speed paintings, like "Introducing Sarah" and wanted these products photos made into/incorporated in illustrations with paint texture and so on:

(I prefer the first version, but this is the one that they printed.)

Take me home, Toto

2009-06-08T12:03:00.004-04:00

Trey and I are settling in our new house in Kansas City. Mark and John English & Brent Watkinson have been so welcoming and we are excited to start the apprenticeship. I managed to take a few pictures of the move to share! More pictures of the new place and fun stuff in our new town to come. Plus, paintings of spring flowers!

Nude and Flowers

2009-03-06T22:20:00.004-05:00

I snapped these pictures tonight even though the light is not so good. Still, in an effort to update, this is what I have been working on! The nude is half-way and the flowers are finished.

Roses

2009-03-03T19:22:00.004-05:00

Trey and I just returned from a great trip to Kansas City. We got to visit with Mark and John English, Brent Watkinson and their families! What a fun time. The city was very neat as well.

In an effort to reclaim my abandoned blog, here is a little taste of a series of flower paintings I am working on!

Tata Gala

2008-11-01T17:41:00.002-04:00

I did this acrylic painting for the Tata Gala show at D3 gallery to benefit Breast Cancer. The show was great, huge turnout and a good vibe!

Designistrator?

2008-08-10T10:16:00.008-04:00

I've been happily very busy with my two jobs - Marketing (and graphic design) for a Spa, and helping Ringling College to design and open their new student/alumni store. It wasn't really my plan to have two part-time jobs (I work about 60 hours a week!), but both of them are fun and enriching so I am not complaining. Although, I haven't been painting enough. Here is a big commission that is in progress right now, portraits of two titans of contemporary asian art as Napoleon. They are (going to be) Ai Wei Wei and Takeshi Murakami. Each cavas is 5' tall.

Also, I'm starting to get my feet under me enough to call myself a graphic designer. I love it! Especially doing things like cards and flyers. Designing the menu it was a bit more tedious (alot more copy). Here are some of the things that I've done for Melody's:

When you open the menu, you first see a seamless photo of the spa, which opens in the middle like a gate:

To the services inside:

Beginnings

2008-06-13T08:22:00.003-04:00

I've been doing a block in for a painting every night. I like where I've stopped with most of these. They are not done, but I also have't killed alot of the interesting stuff yet. At some point, I will have to figure out how to finish them. For now I am just piling up the starts and enjoying them. (Except the dark clouds, I don't enjoy that one!)

Commissioned painting

2008-06-09T16:18:00.003-04:00

Reenie, who has collected many of my paintings, asked me to do a commission based on an black and white photo of her on her Mom's lap. It was a really special image, more of a moment than just a portrait. I delivered the painting to her this morning and we both nearly cried, it was very moving. I'm especially happy with the invented colors - I wanted to bring the moment to life but keep some nostalgic feeling.

And, a little painting of my darling, who is sure to be in pretty much evertyhing for awhile...

painting ideas

2008-06-09T01:08:00.003-04:00

A few digital studies for possible big figure paintings...

digital illustration

2008-06-05T20:52:00.004-04:00

I'm putting together a portfolio to send around to the local magazines. It's mostly lifestyle based stuff, no high falutin concepts here. From today: a little portrait of Rachel, and I redid the Humane Society t-shirt from awhile back as a digital piece.

New apartment, new kitty!

2008-05-29T23:15:00.003-04:00

The Prez

2008-05-08T21:56:00.003-04:00

Trey Bryan and I bumped into someone special backstage at a rally. ;)

Now, Trey has a painting "in the collection of President Bill Clinton"! (with our cards taped to the back).

Graduation Day! + thesis

2008-05-02T16:05:00.004-04:00

In about 3 hours I will officially be an alumni of Ringling College! BFA with honors in Illustration. =)

These are a few of the actual pages, and the front/back cover of the cookbook. Everything came together much more once it was finished out with the type.

Humane Society

2008-04-29T17:11:00.004-04:00

3 more days to official Graduation! After that, I'm going to travel - probably to Boston to see the Antonio Lopez Garcia show and then wander around New England a bit. Then, it's time to settle down here in Sarasota for the next year or so and get a kitten.

Also, a t-shirt design for the Humane Society of Sarasota. =) They decided to upgrade to a grey/silver shirt instead of white, and I am not sure how they chose to place the image - but I hope that they look awsome! I also donated two color roughs of the design to the benefit auction, which are at the framer's now. The event is this Saturday, May 3rd if you want to get a shirt or adopt an adorable animal!

Painting Sale!

2008-04-23T21:37:00.006-04:00

I pulled out around 100 paintings that have lived under my bed for too long and held an open studio day. It went great! I sold 20 of the paintings to happy new homes. That still leaves a small truckload of work that I would like to dwindle down more before I move. The paintings will be up in my apartment for the next week or so, if you would like to come by and see drop me an email: mail@janeradstrom.com

Society of Illustrators Award!

2008-04-17T02:27:00.005-04:00

I just found out the my portrait of Saul Williams was chosen for the Society of Illustrators show in New York city, and won a $5000 award! I also heard, just today, that they chose it to be on the poster advertising the show all over NYC! I'm unbelievably honored. Being accepted to the show and recognized with an award is one of the highest honors an illustration student can receive, as there are thousands of entries from students across the country, only about 100 are chosen to be shown, then around 25 receive awards. Not only that, Ringling College completely dominated both the show and the awards! 24 of the total entries came from Ringling artists, and almost half of the scholarship money was awarded to our students. Congratulations to everyone!!

Society of Illustrations 2008 Award Winners

Photos + a cookbook preview

2008-04-15T21:33:00.004-04:00

The opening went very well. I sold 2 paintings that night. (The cat and the smallest horizontal landscape - on the bottom row of 3). Spencer took photographs of the evening, here are a few:

And, my cookbook went to the printer last Friday! It is 73 pages, 26 recipes and over 50 illustrations. whew! I will have the softcover book for sale ($20) at the Illustration Senior Show, Friday April 25. More than half of what I ordered is already spoken for - so let me know if I should set one aside for you!

Gallery Opening this Friday!

2008-04-01T09:49:00.002-04:00

Well, all the hard work is done. My paintings are at the framers. The show is this Friday! It runs all through April, and Foley's is open until 9pm on weekdays. So, if you don't get a chance to come to the opening, stop by another day. I am very excited to present about 10 new paintings! There are also a few older ones, for a total of (I think) 14. :)

Upcoming show! (chaos ensues)

2008-03-23T02:06:00.003-04:00

With two weeks left to finish my cookbook and get it to the publisher, I'm taking a week off. To paint for an upcoming show! Tina Sweep and I will have an opening in Foley's Fine Art downtown on Main St April 4th. It's a 3 person show - Tina, myself and Picasso. No, seriously. The gallery got in a big shipment of new Picasso drawings and such, and so Tina and I have one wall, Picasso has the rest. Big thanks to Theil for showing the owner our work. So, I have been working on getting together a good set of paintings to put up. Here is what my room looks like in the mean time... and some terrible quick photos of a few new paintings that may go into the show.

Thesis update

2008-03-02T12:36:00.003-05:00

Some of my favorites from the book so far. Also, one random digital painting that has nothing to do with a cookbook (did that one throw you?). I am 22 recipes in; just 3 left. Then, I have to learn how to be a graphic designer to lay out and format this thing (eep). My deadline is April 1st to send it to the printer. I think that I will be using lulu, because I can get an 8 1/2" x 11" paperback for a reasonable cost (I think $13-16 per book depending on the exact pages and such), so I'll be able to change a reasonable price (I would like to charge $20). If anyone from Ringling has gotten something printed there or with another place, I'd like to check it out. Mr. Theil thinks lulu is a bad idea because Blurb would be much better quality (and more $$).

a little more food

2008-01-23T11:23:00.000-05:00

Strawberry Tallcake with Irish Whipped Cream ^

Black Bean Croquettes & Avocado Salsa ^ (This one might get scrapped and redone)

Ugly Delicious Banana Bread ^

Brown Banana spots for the same spread ^

Strawberrys for the Strawberry tallcake spread ^

Thesis time!

2008-01-20T22:48:00.000-05:00

This semester is devoted to my thesis which will be... an illustrated cookbook! I have been researching and testing recipes intensively last semester, now it's time to actually output. I expect the book to be about 50 pages long, with about 35 of them being all illustration and the rest having little doodles or spots or step-by-step how tos. So, I present to you... a couple of the illos and spots so far:

Fifteen-minute Pineapple Curry with Shrimp ^

Sarah's Tomato Tortilla Soup ^

Marinated Steak alla Trey ^

I couldn't upload the rest of the images because they all turned blue... and now the loader won't work. So, maybe tomorrow. Weird.

This isn't actually for my thesis, it's a label that I made to go on jars of homemade Chai tea that I gave away for Christmas.

Assorted things

2007-11-28T01:52:00.000-05:00

A few more self portraits (I think that I overcame the whole issue of painting myself), an old assignment for an article about football player abuse,and some personal miscellany.

self portrait time

2007-11-12T17:49:00.000-05:00

Our senior poster always has self portraits on it, so it is time to conquer that demon. I am treating these like little color studies and painting them pretty fast (about 1 hour), I have done 5 now. Here are two which I like so far... but I will keep going until I run out of time or do one that I REALLY like.

thank you notes

2007-11-01T13:00:00.001-04:00

These are some batches of thank you notes which I sent out to people who bought paintings last weekend. I've never really messed around with water color, but it was great! James Gurney (the Dinotopia illustrator) inspired me to try it, when he showed those water color chickens during his visit a few weeks ago.

Landscapes from summer

2007-10-29T12:14:00.000-04:00

I never posted pictures of the landscapes that I did in West Virginia over summer. Well, before my show this weekend I finally scanned all of them. I don't want to flood the blog with all 60, but here are my favorite ones which I kept for myself, along with some of the ones that I sold this weekend.

theater posters

2007-10-22T02:29:00.000-04:00

I painted up these theater posters in acrylic, and then shot some quick photos so that I could lay out the texts. Next, I'll paint on the fonts for real.

No updates for awhile - eep! I will try to get on it a little better. I've started working big in acrylics in a very simplified way.

extra helping of sketchbook

2007-09-27T23:28:00.000-04:00

drawing fast, drawing drunk, messing around with purple and ect.

goofin off

2007-09-13T09:04:00.000-04:00

I should have been working on something serious... instead I decided to mess around with digital. It's been so long! =)

landscapes and literature

2007-09-10T14:27:00.000-04:00

A little sketchbookin

2007-09-10T13:32:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile! My homespace was f'd and I couldn't save anything that I scanned. I got that sorted out this morning, so here is a little sketch update. I'll put up some new landscape paintings and illustrations soon as well! My classes this first semester of senior year are: Illustration + thesis with Theil, Portfolio, storytelling, American Creativity 2, and I am taking an independent study with George Pratt, which I have basically set up as an extra illustration class. The other project that I'm doing in my own time this semester is a show of Florida plein air paintings (fun time). Landscape painting outdoors is becoming my favorite of everything.

The Illest of Ill show is going to be bigger and better than ever this year! Call for entries will be on Sept 26th, and we're flying in El Coro to guest judge - and he'll be doing a mixed media sketchbook demo! Check out the posters around campus (CJ and the commons especially) and get ready for opening night Sept 28th.

subway sketchbook

2007-08-02T20:06:00.000-04:00

Back in WV now. I lost one sketchbook in Philly - or maybe just left it at a friend's house. Here are a smattering of sketches from NYC - mostly of subway denizens. The last few are drawn from Rodin sculptures.

I'll be back in SRQ this weekend, and looking forward to painting. Birdies and people in galleries.

Driving Around 'o7

2007-07-23T22:24:00.000-04:00

I am one week into a long road trip across the North East. Here is a little taste in photos:

Trey and I on the steps of the National Gallery in D.C.

West Virginia on the way out of town.

George's studio, his collection of other artist's originals, house & kiddos.

Breakfast joint in Richmond w/ Chris White.

Alex and Trey at the National Portrait Gallery. They had a portrait by Phil Hale of a british composer which rocked my socks off!

On the second day, Alex's buddy Doug joined us for some more museums and explorations of the city. His outfit matched Trey's... exactly.

NC Wyeth's studio in Chadd's Ford.

Lunch with Andrew Wright near the Brandywine museum. (He was also on a road trip north, small world!)

John Schoonover's studio in Wilmington, DE.

Some really hardcore illustration nerds may recognize this cellar door as the same one used in a reference shoot for Howard Pyle's painting of a damned sailor on a ship deck in the rain. We trespassed around his studio in Wilmington.

2007-07-08T20:38:00.000-04:00

The finished pic is really a bad shot of my painting - the darks are all lost into holes and so forth, but I will scan it when it's dry. Our assignment was to do an illustration for chapter 3 from pinocchio, in which gipetto takes the hunk o' wood home and carves his new puppet - with pinocchio playing tricks and being a little devil all along the way. In the original story pinocchio actually gets hung and dies because he's such a miscreant. I wanted to show that as he is carved, he becomes more and more in control and animated until he just runs off on his own (at the end of chapter 3).

update

2007-07-06T12:58:00.000-04:00

The end of that peice... I had the weird colors in the flesh, but John English and the rest of the instructors felt very strongly that they were out of place and ruining the picture, so I painted over with the tones above. This is the peice that I did for assignment #2, which was just "a celebrity portrait". He is the slam poet/lyricist Saul Williams.

And then: just a little speed painting. The fabulous Chris White and I had a quick-fire paint off. It was a draw. 40min

(next up: pinocchio)

more progress

2007-07-01T15:47:00.000-04:00

I lighted up all of the colors in the shadows which was a HUGE improvement on this thing.. It's fun to paint big, and to challenge myself to get something extra out of a "photorefernce copy" type painting.

WIPx2

2007-07-01T02:56:00.001-04:00

Some progress with this one. I'm going to do some glazing then change the values on a few things, and put in the writing. A big (32x48) portrait commission: