On Rolling the Dice

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I was talking with my buddy Kohl about the role luck plays in your success in life.

I listen to this podcast from time to time about how successful businesses were built and at the end of each interview the host asks the same question:

“How much of your success is due to your skill and hard work and how much is due to luck?”

And EVERY SINGLE answer is “we worked hard yes, but we were also very lucky”

You'd have to be pretty clueless to think that luck has nothing to do with your success (or failure) in your creative pursuits. It's a factor just as much as skill and work.

I have another friend who put it succinctly:

“Each time you create is a role of the dice. The only thing you can control is how many times you roll the dice.”

It's not up to me if something I do is successful, but it is up to me to show up every day, create something, and share it. And guess what, a few times over these last several years I actually got lucky.

I hope you get lucky too. What dice are you going to roll today?

-Jake

Recycled Cast Aluminum Wall Tiles

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From the Architecture Desk

Want to add a sci-fi ancient alien twist to your interior design? These recycled cast aluminum wall tiles designed by sculptor/architect David Umemoto should do the trick.

David says "Sand-casted aluminum (after concrete) is definitely my favorite material. It has a great combination of elegant shininess and industrial roughness."

Pretty cool look if you ask me.

More here: LINK​

And here: LINK LINK

-Jake

My Long History of Space Witches

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From the Drawings Unit

I'm currently building out the Robots book and one section is about these personal assistant bots that I've been putting in my comics. They're like floating Alexas, but they have their own AI and personalities. I came up with the concept way back in 2004 when I drew a short story called "Lucy Nova" about a space biologist and her side kick who documented everything they were discovering:

In the robots book I'm highlighting the assistant bot for this space witch character I keep coming back to:

I started thinking about where the idea for this witch came from and I remembered it has it's roots in some concepts I came up with over 20 years ago.

In 2002 a guy reached out to me about drawing his sci-fi Wizard of Oz story. I was too busy at the time to draw a full comic*, but I told him I would do the character designs. He didn't have a lot of money to pay me, but he ran a t-shirt printing company and said he could pay me in shirts. So I made a deal to do the art for 100+ shirts. I gave him a Missile Mouse design to print on them, and then I sold those on my website (via paypal) and made a nice profit.

Here's one of the designs I made for him:

I always loved this idea: jet pack monkeys and a leather clad witch with a rocket broom.

A few months later I did this design:

And that just kind of stayed in my head until about 7 years ago when I designed this witch with a magic-punk broom.

The idea of combining technology with a witch festered and grew in my imagination and then a few years ago I made this little drawing:

I thought that maybe this could be a fun character to fold into my Red Shift Renegades universe.

A year later I did this drawing, developing the character further:

Then I revisited the character again in 2021 with this drawing for Inktober:

I'm not sure what her entire backstory is. I know she's well connected in the Red Shift underworld. Does she practice magic? Is she an interdimensional being like the Star Catcher? Or is her past more prosaic and she's thirsting for weird adventures?

Who knows!

-Jake

*The guy he ended up finding was a young, inexperienced Ryan Ottley who would go on to draw Invincible, Spider-Man, and Hulk!

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PATREON: This was originally posted to my Patreon in September. If you'd love getting more behind the scenes posts like these (at least one a week) consider signing up!

Join the Patreon

The amount of support on my Patreon ebbs and flows, but always hovers around 125-130 people. I'd like to get that up to 140 this month. If you sign up this month I'll give you any of my digital artbooks of your choice. Just DM after sign up and I'll send you a download link.

You also get a 15% discount in my shop, and at the end of the month some patrons get all my working files to learn from and pick apart. Sign up here: LINK​

Brett Stenson's colorful shape of nature

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From the Department of Graphic Design

Brett Stenson, a Portland-based illustrator and graphic designer, has a keen eye for color and shape. His work is highly influenced by his home: the pacific north west.

I'm captivated by this artist's oeuvre. So captivated I just used a word I don't even know how to pronounce.

See more of his work here:

Website: LINK​

Dribble: LINK​

Instagram: LINK

-Jake​

On filling glasses

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

It's a new year, and with that comes a period of reflection followed by a sense of resolve welling up from within. I like that our culture takes a collective break for a week between Christmas and New Years where no one is expected to check email, and therefore feel no obligation to send them. It's a time to look back on the year, see what worked and what didn't, and look forward to what you want to accomplish this year.

One thing I'm think a lot about working on this year is what I emphasize.

I spent a lot of energy last year worrying about half empty glasses and a lot of advice given is to instead focus on how full the glass is.

But there's another thing to look at and it's distilled nicely here by economist Donald Kaberuka:

"I'm not interested in whether the glass is half empty or half full. I'm interested in figuring out how to fill the glass."

-Donald Kaberuka (via James Clear)

What can you do this year to fill the glass?

-Jake

The Wandering Wonder of Lee White

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From the Illustrators Division

Colorado based illustrator Lee White makes these wonder inspiring watercolor paintings that make me feel like a kid again.

What I love about his work is he's been able to straddle the fence that stands between decorative art and imaginative illustration. It's really a nice balance that works well for picture books and something like greeting cards or interior design.

Not only have I been a fan of Lee White for over a decade, but I've been lucky to call him a friend. We work together on SVS and the 3PP podcast so I get to talk to him almost every day.

You can find more of Lee's work here:

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

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Lee also has a new water color brush set he just released. If you're wondering how he gets this lovely watercolor textures and looks it's from these brushes he custom made.

I've started using them for some experiments I've been doing privately and these brushes are some of the best I've ever used.

Get the brushes here: LINK

-Jake

How to Fix Your Art

From the Office of Online Education

One of my biggest projects from 2023 was the "How to Fix Your Art" course I helped create for svslearn.com.

After running an art contest for 43 months (Critique Arena) my SVS co-teachers and I kept seeing the same art problems arise over and over and over again.

If only our students knew how to take their illustrations to a more professional level they'd be unstoppable! Yet we understood it can be so tricky to see what's off in your own work.

So we got to work and over the course of the year created How To Fix Your Art to give YOU the tools to see your work like the professionals do.

Our book and video lessons show you how to see the common mistakes illustrators make and how to fix them in your own work. Our secret weapon is a powerful checklist you use to identify what areas still need improvement as you critique your own illustrations.

How to Fix Your Art is available now as a 200+ page PDF, 9 hours of video lessons and demos, AND our comprehensive art checklist. Here's a sneak peek of one of the sections of the checklist:

On service

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

A friend of mine shared this message with me this week and I keep thinking about it.

“In centuries past, art was made for the honor and glory of God. Viewed in this light, a career in the arts was a career of service, not egotism. There is a cue there for us. The dedication of our work to a higher cause than our own self-promotion frees the work from preciousness. It becomes not about how good we are but about how good we can be in selfless service to something larger than ourselves. As artists, we are the bearers of gifts, spiritual endowments that come to us gratis and ask only to be used. A gift for music asks that we give voice to it. A fine photographer's eye asks that we focus it. We are responsible to our gifts for the use of our gifts, and this is a form of accountability too.”

by Julia Cameron.

I love this message, because for the side of me that thinks I'm hot stuff it's a reminder I shouldn't use my talent for stroking my ego, and conversely, for the side of me that thinks I'm a washed up hack it's a reminder that I have the ability to use it in the service of something bigger than me.

Source: Walking in this World: The Practical Art of Creativity

-Jake

The Insane World Building of Tanner Staheli

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From the Illustrators Division

Tanner Staheli is a Utah based artist who's built and incredible universe he calls "Immortalize." His world is as meticulously fleshed out as the hyper-detailed crosshatched drawings he's made for it.

The website he's put together has all the regions of the world with drawings and descriptions, dozens of characters, over a dozen different organizations, and even fauna.

But Staheli isn't just caught in the world building trap, he's begun writing a drawing stories for this world. You can get the first comic he's made here: LINK (sadly it's out of stock, but you can get a digital copy for $5.)

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Shop: LINK

-Jake

Rux Ryder Comic Pages

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From the Making Comics Division

I've been chipping away at a new comic that will be in the Robots book. Here's the first 3 pages. I'm sharing the entire process and the rest of the comic on my patreon for those interested.

The comic in the SPACESHIPS book was directly connected to the book, in that I had Kepler breaking the 4th wall and was speaking to the reader part of the time.

This time for ROBOTS I decided to have my character unaware of the reader, but still have the story correspond with the rest of the guidebook. I think it'll still work just as well. Also, I can cut out the comic part and make a standalone comic with just it.

These are getting colored up by Anderson Carman and the finished pages I'm getting back look solid!

PATREON: If you want to see ALL the sketches, reference material, and prelim drawings I'm doing that go into the creation of drawings like these, become a patron today.

If you sign up this month I'll give you any of my digital artbooks of your choice. Just DM after sign up and I'll send you a download link.

You also get a 15% discount in my shop, and at the end of the month some patrons get all my working files to learn from and pick apart. Sign up here: LINK

-Jake​

Robocop 2 and Creative DNA

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I don't remember much about Robocop 2, but the design of Cain's cyborg body is seared into a recess of my brain. Because Robocop 2 is so old, and my exposure to it was in my early teens I sometimes forget how much this design influenced my art.

I mean, to this day I'm still finding places to put little asymmetrical Xs on my robots.

Your creative DNA is made up of stuff like this. They’re the things you see as a kid or teenager that alter your thinking a little bit. You may have been aware of it at the time, but over the years you forget where these influences came from, until all you have is what is a part of you. Then every once an a while the original idea lands back in your lap and you’re reminded just how much they are a part of you.

I just wanted to salute those things that made me who I am. And remind myself that I didn’t just boil up out of the ether, but am a complex art making machine held together by tiny powerful strands of creative DNA.

-Jake

On what grips your soul

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

"You must cultivate activities that you love. You must discover work that you do, not for its utility, but for itself, whether it succeeds or not, whether you are praised for it or not, whether you are loved and rewarded for it or not, whether people know about it and are grateful to you for it or not. How many activities can you count in your life that you engage in simply because they delight you and grip your soul? Find them out, cultivate them, for they are your passport to freedom and to love." - Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello

Source: The Way to Love (via: James Clear's Newsletter)

-Jake

Emerson Tung's Tankhead

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From the Illustrators Division

Kindred spirit and formidable hard surface artist Emerson Tung has just launched his new book: TANKHEAD.

I've been watching Emerosn post these tank mech designs for close to a decasde now and it's exciting to see them collected in a world building book.

You can order the book here: LINK​

Check out the rest of Emerson's work here:

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

Artstation: LINK

-Jake

The Kinetic Ghibli Fan Art of Art Veider

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From the Illustrators Division

Art Veider is a St Petersberg based artist who excels in energetic action comic style art. His characters are typically drawn from the waist up in a dynamic pose that exude creative electricity. I've been a fan for years.

Recently he's drawn a trio of Ghibli fan art pieces that I love to death.

You can see more of his work here:

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK

-Jake​

Recent Sketchbook Stuff

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From the Drawings Unit

Over the years, as client and personal project needs picked up, I have started to draw less and less in my sketchbook. I used to finish 3 sketchbooks in a year and now they are taking me well over a year to finish.

What I noticed is that when I did have a moment to sit down to draw in my sketchbook I had forgotten how to do it. I had forgotten what a sketchbook was for. It seemed like a waste of time...time that could be spent working on my to-do list. None of my drawings were creative or exciting. They looked forced and unimaginative.

About halfway through this year I realized I hadn't had any NEW ideas. I've been rehashing old ones and executing on past ideas. It dawned on me that my lack of sketchbooking was probably a culprit. I decided to rediscover my sketchbook and recapture its power to be a place of exploration and fun. The drawings above are the first fruits of that.

I'll get more into my sketchbook philosophy in another email, but for now, just wanted to share these drawings.

PATREON: If you want to see ALL the sketches, reference material, and prelim drawings I'm doing that go into the creation of drawings like these, become a patron today.

If you sign up this month I'll give you any of my digital artbooks of your choice. Just DM after sign up and I'll send you a download link.

You also get a 15% discount in my shop, and at the end of the month some patrons get all my working files to learn from and pick apart. Sign up here: LINK

-Jake​

On your art's purpose

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I saw a recent IG post from an artist I follow who had been off of instagram for a bit. Essentially, he was off the platform to recalibrate and get back to making art for himself and not for likes and attention. He points to social media as being an unhealthy place for young artists because of the focus on likes as a measure of self-worth, the problem with comparisons, and a false sense of community.

I applaud this artist (Jake Morrison) for taking a life moment to step back and come at his work in a healthier place. Reminds me of this quote:

The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline… but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.

– Glenn Gould (Canadian classical pianist)

Count this as your reminder for the day to stop making art for the algorithm and make art for people, and for you.

The artists I most resonate with aren't instagram artists (though they might post there), they aren't witty on twitter, or youtube click-baters. The artists I love are the one's who I've met in person and/or have spent hours with their work in my hands and mind.

Figure out how you can provide that experience for people and I think you'll lock in a solid following for your work and be happier as a creative person.

-Jake