SI Newhouse for the NY Observer

Another two day turn around for The New York Observer . . . had me some fun with this one!!!

This was how I originally painted him . . . for the printed edition he needed a procedure. :)

The cover was on the morning news in New York, thank you to my Aunt Nedra for snapping a shot of it for me.

Rick Ross for Rolling Stone!

This is my 5th painting for Rolling Stone!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, Rolling Stone is my favorite magazine to paint for. This was a one day job, started Thursday morning at 7:00 a.m. and finished by 6:00 p.m. that same day . . . it was crazy but it was also a blast!! I decided to save some of my steps while I painted. I hope you enjoy!

Leo Gatsby for the NY Observer

Sorry for the lack of posts on my blog. I've been going through some serious changes in my life as of late . . . too personal to get into on my blog at this time. The good news is that I have a new studio space now and I will be getting back to work which I am excited about. This is a cover I just did this week for the NY Observer. Another two day deadline. I would have loved more time on it, but it is what it is. I spent most my time on Leo as he is the main focus . . . normally three people in such a short turn around is my limit. I didn't feel like I had time to develop the characters as much as I would have liked? Still, I really enjoyed working on this and it feels so good to be back at it again! Thank you all so much for your support throughout the years, it means so much! -Jase

On the stands.

Shmuley Boteach for the New York Observer.

Here's my latest cover for the NY Observer. Had a lot of fun with this one but as usual, it had it's challenges. One being that I don't draw cars all that often and I found it harder than I thought it was going to be. It was an enjoyable challenge though. The other challenge is of course that I had to finish in two days . . . and over Easter weekend . . . not what I wanted to do but life happened and that's how it worked out.



Of course painting M.J. in there was a lot of fun as well . . . hahaha!



Here are a few of the steps that I saved along the way . . . originally I thought they had said that they wanted both his hands up waving but after I did that I really didn't like it so eventually I got rid of his right arm. During these tight turn arounds the work tends to develop and evolve as I go as I don't have the luxury of time to spend on development . . . just go for it!

Three paintings for GOLF Digest!

Sorry for the lack of posts, I'm currently in the middle of many jobs that I can't share publicly yet. All work that I am very excited about and hope to be able to share soon. For now, here are three paintings I did recently for GOLF Digest. This first illustration is a full page and was done as the opener for the article. I decided to paint all three with a vintage-like quality as I felt it would be most appropriate for the subjects as well as the writing.

With the exception of using "noise", all the aging, specs, dust, scratches and so on was painted by hand (digitally using my cintiq) no computer tricks or filters.



Spot illustration to go along with the article.




Spot illustration to go along with the article.

Cover for New York Observer

Cover I painted this week for the New York Observer. I spent a day and a half on this one, started Monday morning and finished mid-day Tuesday. I decided to keep it more painterly which I like but had to do because of my time frame . . . and for the background I chose to simplify and suggest.

This one was fun!





Here's a pic my friend Fred Harper took of the paper, somewhere in New York. Thanks Fred!

What if he loses?

Cover I painted recently for Washinton Monthly.

This was a challenge but I welcomed it and really enjoyed working on it. It was very important for this piece that Obama had a sad, or frustrated expression on his face. I was able to find a few references of Obama with expressions similar to this, but nothing at the exact angle that I needed. I used two different references of Obama's face to create this one image of him but I also used myself as a model. I used my own face to help create the expression that was needed. I also found it useful to watch YouTube videos of Obama and paused them in mid-speech to learn more about his expressions.

The Black Keys for Rolling Stone

The Black Keys for Rolling Stone! I'd like to say thank you to Steven at RS for thinking of me for this one.




Ever since I was 15 I dreamed of painting for Rolling Stone. This is my fourth painting for them and I hope to do many more. Besides the personal high of painting for RS, I am a fan of The Black Keys and have been listening to their music for years, so painting them for RS was quite the honor.

Wallstreet Bullsh@t.

Cover I painted this week for the New York Observer. This one was a rush.
(painted in a day and a half)

All in all I only had a day and a half to do this cover. "Life" happened, and so I lost a lot of time that I would have normally had. Another challenge with this one was that there isn't very good reference available of the judge. The judge needed a specific expression and in the two pictures I had of him, he was smiling, so I took pictures of myself and my friend Brian for expression reference. I had some fun with the lawyer character and used myself as the model. It was fun messing myself up! :) My favorite part of the whole piece was painting the Bull, the colors were a lot of fun to work on. All in all, I wish I could have had more time to work on everything . . . sometimes these quick turnarounds can really feel like a marathon and this one was no exception. There's not much time to step back and analyze, you have to tuck on and adjust as you go, and when the time is up, it's up.

The Spiritual Beatle

Cover I did last week for The Weekly Standard. This was a fun piece to work on, and know it's different from my usual look of realistically painted flesh tones but it was what was needed for this particular cover. The psychedelic aspect of image was fun to do, an I'm happy with how it turned out but I would have loved more time to push everything a little more.



Two day deadline.

The Devils and the Deep Blue Sea!

New cover for the NY Observer.

This week I had me some fun! :) As usual, I only had two days so I had to work very fast. The subject is Ray Kelly, Police Commissioner of New York city. I was asked by the Observer to show Kelly as trying to put on a "good" face while corruption and so on continues within the New York Police department. I thought the idea of him as an angel would be funny . . . add a couple demon-cops in hell and there you have it. I'm happy they liked this idea, it was great fun to work on.

And Mr. Ray Kelly, if you happen to see this post, I would just like to say thank you for having such a wonderful face, it's been a while since I've had this much fun. Your face is a true gift, cherish it my brotha, cherish it!






Face detail.





Quick likeness sketch.





Mock up sketch.

Melissa McCarthy sketch

Morning warm up sketch . . . my favorite character from the hilarious movie, "Bridesmaids".

Steve Jobs for Adweek.

Steve Jobs portrait for Adweek.

It was a true honor to be asked to do another portrait for Adweek and even more of an honor that it was to be a tribute for Mr. Steve Jobs. I felt it was important to capture his warmth and passion for life, but to be honest, I felt a fair amount of pressure to say the least. I took this on with the intention of creating something iconic, an image that I hope honors Steve and his family.




This cover was done as a tribute to Steve Jobs, a special three-page gatefold cover. Two illustrations and a photo. The second illustration was done by artist Jorge Colombo, on an iPAD.




Last Wednesday, I was away with my family at an apple orchard of all places. I hadn't heard the news about the passing of Steve Jobs until that night as I drove back to Chicago. My agent called me and told me Adweek wanted me to paint a portrait of Steve. As mentioned above, I was honored to do this painting but felt a great responsibility to get it right. On top of that I had two days to do it. I gathered as much reference for Steve as I could and got to work. I based my image off of two different pictures but noticed subtle things within his expression from other images and brought them all together to create what I hope "feels" like Steve Jobs.



Detail of painting. Even though I did not know Steve personally, he's had such an enormous impact on the world, it felt as if I knew him and it was important to me to not create a sad image, but instead an image that would bring happiness and joy, and hopefully peace to those who knew him. As I painted, I tried to think about his family and what this might be like for them.



Sketches and block in . . . I'd like to thank Nick Mrozowski the art director for thinking of me for another cover, I really appreciate it!