Hello!

Good week. Making headway on some projects and reconsidering some options for future plans. I will have an update next week on that life form we created in our lab here at JP Creative International HQ. It is quite shocking.

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

Enjoy!

1) Inks Are Finished!

From the Making Comics Division

Inks are finished for this Issue One of Red Shift Renegades! Colors are coming along nicely too by Anderson Carman. I should have digital copies for sale soon.

One thing I love about these two pages was getting to draw the inside of Aven's ship and figuring out how to make it livable, but also functional. Also, I love drawing cities too.

You can actually watch me ink this last page over on Instagram: LINK​

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It's time to join the Patreon: Patrons are getting frequent updates on this comic, 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) Dashboard Gallery

From the Office of Wheels

Found this great gallery of old dashboards on Flickr. I'm always paying attention to this kind of stuff because A) I love industrial design and B) I never know when I might need to design a dashboard for a comic or concept art job. I love industrial design because I think it's pretty cool to see how 100 different designers decided to solve the same problem. Some of these are really spartan with just the essentials (LINK). While others have every gauge, knob, dial, and lever available at arms length (LINK).

Also find it fascinating where some car companies will spend money on interior design, and others look like the interior was an afterthought...something for the engineers to handle.

You can see many many more dashboards here: LINK​

3) VR Workstations

From the Concept Art Division

Every so often I talk to people who think that AR or VR aren't ever going to really catch on. They laugh at the goofiness of headsets and how helpless people look with them on. There's not a lot of virtual infrastructure or mass adoption yet leading some people to wonder what they'd even use a headset for. To play what? To meet up with who? BUT I can see a future where we are wearing these things all day.

Now, it mortifies me think that my kids and grandkids are going to spend a good part of their lives in a metaverse type situation. That they might be spending their days without seeing actual trees or sunlight. And if you think that's not going to happen just go check your screentime from last week and multiply that.

However, I'm trying to see the silver linign here and one good thing about this is VR headsets are going to democratize workstations for people. Imagine not needing a laptop, or an ipad, or a big screen to work off of, or a synthesizer, or a mixing station. All you need is a headset. These tools are all barriers of entry for creators and removing them means so many more people are going to be able to create things.
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Greg Madison has caught this vision and decided to make a mock up of what that could look like. You can see his short demo here: LINK​

4) THE GAPE

From the Comics Division

A massive monster, mouth wide open and a lone character courageously confronting it. I see this illustration trope a lot in comic covers. AND I LOVE IT.

I feel like there's one or two of these covers that come out every year. I decided to start collecting them in a folder as I come across them. If you know of any let me know. Here's the a bunch I have so far:

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Really, if you know of any more of these, send me a link or email them to me for my collection.

5) On Resources

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

The French have an expression: "faire feu de tout bois" which translated means "to make fire out of any wood." This is the fundamental principle of my concept of filling your creative bank account.

Every experience you have whether directly (seeing the pyramids for example) or indirectly (watching a documentary about the pyramids) is creative fuel. But it doesn't need to be amazing experiences like traveling someplace exotic or seeing an inspiring movie or reading an incredible graphic novel to fuel your ideas. Creative capital can come from anywhere...even from the crappy day you might have had last week.

Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges says this about it:

Next time you're down, or in an unfair situation, or you keep screwing something up, take stock of it, audit it, and see where the gold of an idea is. Pair this with last week's inspirational thought: perhaps you now have the right story to help someone.

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

-Jake

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