The art college in the movie is based on the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. According the published screenplay, the minimalist paintings Jonah brings to class were painted by author Daniel Clowes when he was a student at the Pratt Institute.
The fictional art school portrayed in the film is based on the real Pratt Institute. Coincidentally, all three of director Terry Zwigoff's fiction films were written by Pratt Institute alumni: (Daniel Clowes, writer of this film as well as Ghost World (2001),] and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, writers of Bad Santa (2003).
The college's name, "Strathmore", is actually a company that manufactures things like sketch pads and tracing paper for artists. Most of the students throughout the movie use products from this brand.
Sophia Myles said she was terrified about her nude scene (the first in her career): "I mean I had a 'no-nudity' clause for Tristan + Isolde (2006) because I didn't think it was appropriate. I didn't think you needed to see any more than you see to believe that we were in love or making love and quite often you see so much gratuitous nudity in films, especially from women, and my body is a very kind of precious thing to me. So when I was first sent the script and I opened it and flicked through it, and it says, 'She enters and she disrobes' I thought 'No way!' and threw it across the other side of the room." She finally did it: "If there is going to be nudity in a film, I would rather do it myself than use my body double. If they use one, they can go and do a day's shooting, you don't know what they're doing and people still think it's you."