From the Department of Creative Bank Accounting, Short Film Division
I don't know who made this, but it's brilliant. I love it when people combine two genres that you would never think would work well together. Like Russian Farming, and 80's Cyberpunk. Just brilliant. LINK
-Jake
From the Department of Creative Bank Accounting, in cooperation with the Office of Good News
Back in 2015 this story of a loggerhead turtle that what injured by a boat made the rounds on the internet when scientists equipped it with a 3-D printed prosthetic jaw at a rehabilitation center in Turkey. I missed this story back then, but it was just brought to my attention recently, and now I share this with you.
A few searches didn't bring up any update on whether or not the turtle's body rejected the implant, or whether it was returned to the sea. However, I love that this happened. Warms my heart to see technology put to good use, righting a wrong.
-Jake
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
A little more on what I opened the newsletter with about what your art is supposed to be.
Your art is to be the praise of something that you love. It may only be the praise of a shell or a stone.
- John Ruskin
I like that. Your art is praise. Your job is to show someone why something should be praised. The act of praising it teaches people to appreciate that thing. I can tell you I didn't appreciate rocks that much until I read Calvin and Hobbes. The way Watterson drew canyons and landscapes in the Spaceman Spiff strips made me realize how fun and beautiful the shapes were in the deserts I grew up in.
As you can tell from my own art and the landscapes I post about here that my appreciation for rocks has continued to grow.
Think about that the next time you're stumped about what to create.
-Jake
From the Comics Division
Been reading this online comic by Simon Roy and Jess Pollard. I'll let them describe it to you:
"On a distant planet, a prying scribe, an overly sentimental constable, and a mayor resurrect a sleepy town’s long-defunct priest-bot. But “Father Stanley” is not what he seems. Meanwhile, in another universe, a hungry wizard accidentally sends a war-god into the body of a chicken"
So yeah, it's pretty fun.
Read here: LINK
-Jake
From the Special Projects Unit
>>>CLICK HERE TO BE NOTIFIED ON LAUNCH<<<
If everything goes as planned my Kickstarter will be launching next week. If you've enjoyed these newsletters, backing this book project would be a great way to show your love and support.
It's part comic. Part art book. ALL spaceships!
Here's a sneak peek at a couple of the reward tiers:
This is just scratching the surface of some of the things I've been putting together for this. Can't wait to show you the exclusive prints.
Again, sign up here for the notification at launch: LINK
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JOIN THE DISCORD COMMUNITY HERE: LINK
It's been a ton of fun seeing what people are posting and discussing over there. The newsletter has it's own thread so you can discuss what I share with other like-minded folks. Come on over, grab a snack and join the party!
-Jake
From the Exploration Unit
Do yourself a favor and google image search "The Ennedi Desert."
I'm VERY familiar with most of the major rock formations and arches found in the southwestern United States. So when some interesting formations from the Ennedi desert popped up in a few searches and I didn't recognize any of them, my curiosity was piqued.
This place is a treasure of inspiring rock formations and vistas. Seems like every corner of this desert is a shot for a Star Wars location.
Located in northeastern Chad the region has a sparse population of semi-nomads, chiefly Muslims who speak the Dazaga dialect.
Will definitely be referring to this the next time I need to design an alien landscape.
I pulled images from these three websites: LINK and LINK and LINK
-Jake
From the Special Projects Unit
Been going through my archives and found a TON of spaceship drawings. Decided to make an art book celebrating sci-fi spaceships.
This is the cover art. Kickstarting this thing in June.
Instead of doing DRAWINGS 6 (which is a tough entry point for new fans) and instead of reprinting my DRAWINGS series I’m going to make themed books.
The first one to test this strategy:
“Kepler’s Intergalactlc Guide to Spaceships”
Part comic. Part art book. ALL spaceships!
Here's the Kickstarter Pre-launch Page: LINK
If this is something you are excited about, please click "Notify me on launch" so I can gauge interest in this project before I launch!
Here's a close ups of the original art for that cover:
JOIN THE DISCORD COMMUNITY HERE: LINK
It's been a ton of fun seeing what people are posting and discussing over there. The newsletter has it's own thread so you can discuss what I share with other like-minded folks. Come on over, grab a snack and join the party!
-Jake
From the Art Department's Craft Mastery Special Unit
Smear frames in animation is a creative solution to making animated characters move with more fluidity in a short amount of frames. This webpage does an EXCELLENT job at explaining it with interactive examples.
THE ART OF THE SMEAR: BREAKING DOWN A SECRET ANIMATION TRICK LINK
I share this because someone recently posted screen grabs of all the smears from the recent 3D animated Spongebob film. Each of these frames is like a Dali painting. Brilliant work by the artists at Mikros, who animated the film.
From the Art Department's Craft Mastery Special Unit
Another paint over of some of my line work. Having fun with these and learning a lot about color, form, and light.
-Jake
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
Here's a productivity tip I picked up from a Tedx talk by Rory Vaden: How to Multiply Your Time
To-Do List Questions:
1) Can I eliminate this task?
2) If I can't eliminate this task, can I automate it?
3) Can it be delegated, or can I teach someone else how to do this?
4) Should I do this task now, or can I do it later?
Often times I get overwhelmed with to-dos piling up and I keep forgetting this advice. When I look at what is really streamlined in my life it's because I have applied this advice in the past. The trick it to keep remembering ask myself these questions!
-Jake
From the Office of Aerial Design
If history had charted a slightly different course we might be flying these to work today. I love this unconventional design and the optimism of this project from the 60s. Unfortunately, a flight test resulted in a fatality of a pilot and the project was scrapped. The company making these went into making peach-pitting machines. I guess that's important too.
You can read more here: LINK
-Jake
From the Fashion Desk in cooperation with the Department of Character Design
Hard to believe this is an actual fashion designer and you can purchase these outfits to wear outside the house. The whole aesthetic for DEMOBAZA is neo-post apocalyptic punk. Those are my words, because believe it or not, the way they describe their clothing is a more of a mouthful:
"DEMOBAZA is a project beyond fashion, that works for the creation of the next dimension. This is the natural progress to a new vibration through galactic transition, enlightenment of the soul and awakening of the consciousness."
It's not my style, but this is an incredible resource for character design. Will be bookmarking this website for future reference!
Check out their incredible collection on their LOOKBOOK page here: LINK
-Jake
From the Illustrators Division
Hot dog, what a treat to discover these websites. I've been a fan of Berkey ever since I was like, seven, when I saw his art on the cover of "Our Universe" at the library. Blew me away that someone could paint like that. Plus, that book opened my mind to the beauty of space science.
His fan website is a stash of art I've never seen along with some classics. My only nitpick is the images are low res, and often scans from the printed source.
Berkey's official website is pretty good in that regard, but the selection of work is limited.
Berkey Fan Website: LINK
Berkey Official Website: LINK
(Thanks to TachyonArt's newsletter for the Berkey link. Read his newsletter here.)
-Jake
From the Drawings Unit
CH-CH-CH-CHIP AND DALE!
These guys are a couple of my favorite characters from the 90s. The Rescue Rangers show was hugely impactful on my art and directly inspired my MissileMouse comics. Love these guys!!
Still need to see the new movie. I hear it's actually good. Is that so?
You can watch a live stream of me drawing these guys here on IG: LINK
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By the way, I'm getting a TON of positive responses to my new Renegades comic. If you haven't had a chance to read it, you can snag a digital copy here:
DOWNLOAD MY NEW COMIC HERE: LINK
-Jake
From the Department of Creative Bank Accounting, Photography Desk
From the book: Calli E Canali in Venezia, Venice Views by Ferndinand Ongania, 1891: LINK
There's so many more images in the link. Do check them out. It's like time traveling!
(via @UrbanFoxxxx)
-Jake
From the Desk of Applicable Memes
This one made me laugh.
Seriously though, if it's a project I really want to be on, I'll work within the client's budget, and try to always give a little more than they asked for. Same with commissions. If I'm not into it, but I need the money, I'm working for my full day rate.
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
Any kind of creator is faced with never ending possibilities when it comes to what project to work on. Whether you're getting hit up all the time with offers to help out with something, or you have a growing list of ideas you'd like to tackle, or you're faced with two different opportunities and can only choose one, it is sometimes debilitating to know what to work on next.
There's two quotes I keep coming back to when I'm faced with decisions:
If I'm saying yes out of guilt or fear, then it's a polite "no." Neil Strauss
If it's not a "Hell, yes!" It's a "No." Derek Sivers
I like both of these because they operate on two ends of the enthusiasm spectrum. I've said yes to projects I wasn't excited about, and only took on because I felt guilty I'd regret it. Worse yet, I've taken on projects out of fear that I wouldn't succeed on the path I was currently on.
Guess what? At best they were a neutral impact project. I didn't grow at all by taking them on. The worst cases wasted my time and energy taking me down paths I never should've been on in the first place.
Don't do something out of fear or guilt. If you do take on a project, take it because your head is in that "Hell, yes!" space.
-Jake
From the Reading Desk
As mentioned last month, I have a goal to read through my book collection this year and put myself on a book buying freeze. However, that freeze does not include single issue comics, ha.
April was crazy busy, but I did carve out some time to read some comics.
Here's what I read:
TWIG by Skottie Young (Writing) and Kyle Strahm (Art), with amazing coloring work by Jean-Francois Beaulieu.
All I'm going to say about this is: Jim Henson would endorse this comic if he were still with us. Need I say more?
It's Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Never Ending Story, and Fraggle Rock all rolled into one. Can't wait to read the next issue.
Step By Bloody Step by Si Spurrier (Writing), Matias Bergara (Art)
This is an entirely wordless comic told only through the artwork, and boy is it powerful. They are creating an experience here with this comic that you can not find in movies, video games, or novels. This makes me so excited for the comics medium. Definitely a benchmark.
Head Lopper 1 and 2 by Andrew McLean
I've seen Headlopper on shelves for years and for some stupid reason never gave it a shot. I found these two books at a convention a few years ago and still, they sat on my shelf, unread.
I finally decided that I'd sit down and read them and I feel like such a doofus for waiting so long.
You want to know what Head Lopper is? Head Lopper is what I would expect Mike Mignola to make if he did a straight fantasy comic. If you know how much I love and revere Mignola's work you'd understand what a compliment that is to McClean.
Head Lopper is funny and smart and atmospheric and well paced and has a solid aesthetic to it.
There's TWO more of these books waiting for me when the freeze is over and I can't wait.
Oh, and if it wasn't obvious from the title, there is indeed an awful lot of head lopping in these books.
-Jake
From the Illustrators Division
I'm seriously in love and in awe with these drawings by online artist ma-ko. Can't find any background info on him, a real mystery of a guy!
Here's a person who understands atmosphere and composition. I love an artist who gives the back ground and world of their art just as much love as their characters (if not more).
See more here:
IG: LINK
INPRNT: LINK
-Jake
From the Office of Wheels
Leave it to the Italians to have the most impressive automobile museum in the world. Turin Automobile Museum boasts one of the rarest and most interesting collections of its kind, with over 200 original cars from 80 brands from all over the world.
Putting this on my list of places to visit if I ever end up in Italy. In the meantime, their website has a nice gallery of cars you can view from the comfort of your own bed: LINK
I picked some cool ones for the newsletter here:
(Thanks to friend of the newsletter, Laura, for this tip!)
-Jake
