Hello!

Running a little behind on this today. Had some calls this morning about projects and collaborations and it has me all excited for the future. Can't wait to see what blossoms from all of this.

Hope your week was great, and that your ready to rock or chill this weekend!

Ok, got some cool stuff to share with you this weekend. Hope it finds you safe and sound.

Enjoy!

1) Skull Chaser and Vodrogo

From the Drawings Unit

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I drew this a few months ago for my buddy @vodlines and forgot to post it. As you know, I’ve been working on a new Skull Chaser comic and while going through my archives of art to find cool images of him I found this and forgot I never shared it online.

This was penciled digitally, printed out and inked traditionally, then scanned in and colored digitally, then printed out and photographed. Phew!

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Accepting New Patrons: Patrons are getting frequent updates on the comic I'm making, including more behind the scenes stuff. They've also read the full comic in both roughs, pencils, and now inks as I finish them.

I just dropped the Red Shift Renegades title logo reveal plus a detailed breakdown of how I designed it. You don't want to miss that.

I'm also sharing other art and sketches and stuff related to other projects. It's a treasure trove of information and cool art. When I finish this comic I'll have an exclusive special edition Artist Edition PDF for patrons.

Join here: LINK​

2) The Faroe Islands

From the Photography Desk in cooperation with the Exploration Unit

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This place is amazing. The Faroe Islands is a rocky and rugged archipelago in the North Atlantic. The 18 volcanic islands are an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. I would love to visit this place with a sketchbook.

Hamburg-based photographer, David Altrath photographed this incredible landscape in 2019. Looks like the perfect spot to hide out for a summer and just center yourself. Do some fishing, mow the roof...you know Faroe stuff.

You can see the rest of the photos here: LINK​

And more of Altrath's fabulous work here: LINK​

And his Instagram: LINK​

3) Batman Ephemera

From the Department of Interesting Collections

I found this amazing album on Flickr of 60s and 70s Batman ephemera, toys, and miscellany. I mean, c'mon that scalloped school binder at the bottom?! It's something I would have flipped out over in first grade. Pretty amazing design.

My favorite here is that Japanese Batmobile model box. The bat-tipped kanji are perfection.

I love this era of Batman because it wasn't so dark but FUN and more importantly weird. I the modern trend to make superheroes grittier and more realistic has its place but the more you sacrifice the weirdness of superheroes for more reality the more ridiculous a man wearing a batsuit becomes. Also...can Robin please come back?​

The sweet spot was the animated series in the 90's. I've said it before, but if we had a live action version of that I'd be in Batman heaven.

These images are all a part of the personal collection of Donald Deveau and there's three pages of this stuff you can check out here: LINK​

The rest of Deveau's collection is like a middle 20th century pop culture museum. Good stuff!

4) TO ZO

From the Illustrators Division

TONČI ZONJIĆ ( pronounced tawn chi zawn yitch) or just To Zo for short is a Croatian illustrator based in Canada and I think his work is just so darn good.

This comic is one installment of a series he calls A+M about a couple of space robots (cyborgs?). You can read the rest of them here: LINK​

I spent about an hour last Friday just soaking in all the work on his website. The man is PROLIFIC. His style is a beautiful marriage of Toth and Ware and Caniff.

Check out the rest of his work here:

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

5) On Imperfections

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Have you ever created something and while looking at its finished state could only see where the project was wonky in places. Where it fell short of the vision? Where the parts that failed to live up to your expectations glaringly obvious? Perhaps you were satisfied with the outcome, but not thrilled with the execution?

I like the outlook on dealing with this let down of reality vs vision when it comes to your work. From Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland:

Those imperfections are a signal that your work is wanting to evolve. Maybe the faces you draw, or the dialogue you write, or the way you manage a project isn't as good as your inspiration. Your next piece of work is a chance to lean into that flaw and make it your style.

​Kirby wasn't a master at anatomy, but he leaned into the energy his peculiar faces and limbs had made it into a distinctive approach to drawing that was ALL his.

That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!

-Jake

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