Issue 187

Hello,

We made it through January! I've been dividing my time between two projects:

​The Robots book​

​Self-Publishing Pro

I'm excited about both of these. Self-publishing has been, hands down, the most satisfying thing I've done in my 20+ year career as an artist. I can't stop myself. I can't wait to get the Robots book out to people, and I can't wait to teach people how to make their own books themselves. The enrollment dates for Self-Publishing Pro are Feb 27-Mar 4, so set a reminder if you want 2024 to be the year you make a book for real.

All right...here's 5 things I thought you'd find interesting this weekend.

Enjoy!

STAYING IN THE LOOP:

• 🚨I'm coming to Houston🚨: Houston TCG Feb 10th-11th​
• Podcast Episode 192: Is My Idea Worth Pursuing?​
• Podcast Episode 193: Think Like a Business Owner​
• Recent Post: 10x your cool with Japanese Kanji ​

1) Attack of the Mickey Bots

From the Drawings Unit

Not going to bury the lead, so here you go: Steamboat Willie entered the public domain this year and I thought I'd refresh an old robot Mickey I designed several years ago and make a few variations of it. I present to you:

M1CK3Y

M1NN13

and

Steambot W1LL13

Should I do the brave little tailor and sorcerers apprentice versions??

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PATREON: 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 creativiy, 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) The Vintage Logo Collection of Reagan Ray

From the Department of Graphic Design

Found a nice collection of old logos put together by graphic designer Reagan Ray. This is a GOLDMINE. If you're into world building for your comic, video game, concept art, or whatever creative project you're working on, adding well thought out, appropriate logos make the world feel lived in and real.

If you're just a huge fan of graphic design in general, or an artist looking for ideas, you've got to check out Ray's website. It really is a gift.

He's collected them in different categories:

​Marvel Superhero Lettering​

​Hair Band Lettering​

​Jazz Musician Lettering​

​Science Fiction Movie Lettering​

​Las Vegas Casino Logos​

​Video Game Console Logos​

​Airline Logos​

​80s Action Figure Logos​

​American Automobile Logos​

​Record Label Logos​

​Railway Logos​

​VHS Distributor Logos​

​Western Clothing Labels​

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Check them out, but be careful, this is a potential day wrecker. You've been warned. I'm not responsible for any thing you didn't finish today because you got lost in logo design.

3) Illustrations by Okamoto Kiichi

From the Illustrators Division

Japanese illustrator Okamoto Kiichi (1888–1930) took the aesthetic of early 20th century European magazine illustration and filtered it through an eastern sensibility to give us these remarkable illustrations from the legendary illustrated children's magazine Kodomo no kuni. His designs still feel fresh almost 100 years later.

More here: LINK​

4) Pavel Postovoit's 80's futurism industrial design

From the Illustrators Division

Toronto based 3d designer Pavel Postovoit's 80's futurism industrial design is a window into a future that never was. Right now he's just made these I've shared here, and I'm not sure what they're for, but I hope we get more.

Artstation: LINK​

5) On making magic

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Last week a friend of mine was writing a screenplay and having a rough day with it. He barely made a dent in it all day. Some days the sun rises and sets and the only progress you've made on your project was just thinking about it. We lamented to each other about how hard it is to be creative sometimes.

Then I said this to him:

I extend that same message to anyone who creates, not just writers.

The greatest event in history was when space, time, and matter all exploded onto the scene from nothing. Scientists are still trying to unlock that mystery and, as far as our instruments can detect, it's only happened once.

But in a way, it also happens every time you sit down to the drawing board and conjure up something where there was nothing.

Don't feel bad if it's actually hard some days.

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

-Jake

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