My newsletter gives people a 5 minute infusion of inspiration to help them stay motivated to create.
Anything can be a dragon
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Issue 191 Hello, We are heating up here in AZ! Summer hit us like a sledgehammer this week. Usually, I'm tucked away in my air conditioned office, but yesterday I went to Costco to pick up a rotisserie chicken, and BOY, that was not a pleasant experience. Thankful for pools, AC, and big bags of ice. Okay, here's FIVE things I thought you'd love as we roll into the weekend! Enjoy! STAYING IN THE LOOP:
1) Robot Round Up From the Drawings Unit Here's most of the landscape robot illustrations I did for the robots book. The great thing about books is landscape images look amazing in them. The thing that stinks about social media is landscape images look small and insignificant. I find myself being drawn more and more to art books, like I used to be before I got my phone. You just can't replicate the experience on a glass screen. This book is out now digitally. Available here: LINK I'll have print copies available in July! Special thanks to Tate Parker and Anderson Carman for helping me out with colors on these. Get my 8 book bundle for $60: LINK ----- PATREON: Get a front row seat of the ROBOTS book creation on Patreon: LINK I'm posting my process for all my art on the patreon. If you'd love getting more behind the scenes content and learn a little more how I approach creativity, project management, and business strategies I post over there at least one a week. Consider signing up!
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 2) Experimental Ball Apartments from the 1980s From the Architecture Desk Back in the early 80s an artist and sculptor had an idea for an experimental settlement of extraterrestrial looking buildings, and somehow convinced some investors to get the money to build it. That visionary was Dutch artist, Dries Kreijkamp, and his masterpiece was something he called the "bolwoningen." Bolwoningen roughly translates to "ball apartment" which is fitting because Kreijkamp recognized the shape of a sphere as the most organic and natural form in nature. As something of a sphere artist myself (see half my robot designs above) I love these quirky little abodes. More photos here: LINK LINK LINK 3) 1985 Nissan Com Com From the Office of Wheels How can something 39 years old look so fresh and be so perfect for this moment in time? Debuted at the 1985 Tokyo Motor Show, the Nissan COM COM concept van was Nissan's answer to another quirky delivery van designed by Mazda. This thing has it all: straigtline styling. GPS. Car Phone. CD changer. But the think I love the most is the sliding front door. It's a shame it never went to production. 4) Anything can be a dragon if you're Gomalemo From the Illustrators Division Japanese based creature designer Gomalemo has a gift. Not only does he possess a solid understanding of animal anatomy and physiology across all species, but he can combine those elements and make truly unique and captivating creature designs. The thing that gets me is the wild combinations. Like, who would've thought to make a reindeer dragon? Yet it really works. I got one of his books a while back and it's just a delight to flip through every now and then, when I need a little creative boost: Much more here: Pixiv: LINK X: LINK Instagram: LINK Tumblr: LINK 5) On Structure From the Inspirational Thought Unit Back in January I posted this quote for the inspirational thought from French author Gustave Flaubert: “Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.” I got asked by a reader of this newsletter how one actually executes this. The more structure you can add to your life, the easier it is to deal with problems when they arise and oftentimes many problems vanish. For example: I used to lose my keys, wallet, and sunglasses ALL THE TIME. It was so frustrating to need to go somewhere and have to spend 10 minutes searching the house for all my stuff. It was always a mini crisis when I couldn't find those things. That's just one example...but my entire life was that way. I had a cluttered office, I had a cluttered schedule, I had a cluttered mind. Eventually I woke up to the fact that these mini-crises were eating away at my creativity because the mental capacity it took to deal with them sapped the cognitive resources I needed for my creative work. I implemented a "Solve Problems for Future Jake" mindset. It went like this: One spot for my wallet, keys, and sunglasses. Whenever I get home they go to that spot. Whenever I have to leave, I don't have to search the house, I just need to check that spot. It takes the tiniest bit of more work on my part when I come home, but it is worth not having a crisis in a time crunch later. I repeated that mindset in every area of my life. Whenever I got a new piece of information I needed to remember, I had a spot to put it: My planner. I established a daily and weekly schedule for almost everything in my life. I knew when I would be getting up everyday, when I would be eating, working out, showering, and going to work. And each week I knew when I would do certain tasks like my newsletter, inbox (still trying to perfect his one) and patreon updates. Over time as more and more structure was implemented in my life I found that I was more creative and productive because so much more brain power was available for creative endeavors instead of having to solve scheduling problems and chaotic situations. Hope this helps someone like me! That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend! -Jake My sponsor for this newsletter is…me. It's me, because I'm not accepting sponsors for my email list, and don't plan to any time soon. Really, I'd just like people to buy stuff from my shop. If you like this newsletter, you can support it a few ways: Order something from the shop (Best) Back a kickstarter when I launch one (Also Best) Support me on Patreon (Second Best) Share the newsletter with a friend (Third best) Shop for art supplies using my affiliate links* (Fourth best) Mention it on social media (Fifth best) I'd appreciate any of these when you can. Thanks! *Any amazon link I post is an affiliate link Weekend Reading: Griz Grobus by Simon Roy |
Hi! I'm Jake
My newsletter gives people a 5 minute infusion of inspiration to help them stay motivated to create.
Issue 196 Hello, Work has been solid lately. I just delivered the first 100 pages of the graphic novel I'm working on. Can't wait to tell you about it when the publisher gives the OK. Things are also coming together for the reboot/glow up of SVSlearn.com. We are going to be taking our teaching to another level. More on that next month. Lots of great stuff to share today, so let's get to it. Here's FIVE things I thought you'd love as we roll into the weekend! Enjoy! STAYING IN THE LOOP: 3PP...
Issue 195 Hello, I've been neck deep on the big graphic novel project I'm working on with Scholastic. I can't really talk about it yet, but when the time comes you won't be able to get me to shut up about it. Haha. The rest of my time has been working on SVSlearn 2.0 which will be launching in November. I'll be sharing more about that as things start to solidify. It's going to be soooo cool! Okay, here's FIVE things I thought you'd love as we roll into the weekend! Enjoy! STAYING IN THE LOOP:...
Issue 194 Hello, My Comics Creator Head Start Workshop is next Saturday. We have over 20 people signed upI I would love to have you if you're wanting to learn how to save time in the comics process, and make work that matters. Enrollment closes next Friday night. July 20th and 27th. Mark your calendar, and enroll today: LINK COMICS WORKSHOP INFO Okay, here's FIVE things I thought you'd love as we roll into the weekend! Enjoy! STAYING IN THE LOOP: 3PP Podcast: Is My Work Ready for Market? 3PP...