No Longer Updating Here

This blog is now defunct. For frequent updates, please visit my tumblr: janemakes.tumblr.com or facebook.

Sketchbook Pages!

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

Life Drawing Sketches

Some drawings from the model at the Illustration Academy!
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Salacious girl sketches

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

e-card?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sketchie

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

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

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

Art Erotica

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

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

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

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.