Issue 172

Hello!

Tonight will be the first Friday night in 4 weeks that I'll get to sleep in my own bed. I was in Connecticut for an author visit, then on a camping trip with my son, then out of town for a wedding. It might be my age talking here, but I'm really looking forward to it. The older I get, the more I just want to be a hobbit in a comfortable hole, with visits from old friends, and two breakfasts everyday.

Here's 5 things I thought you'd find interesting this weekend.

Enjoy!

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LATEST

I do all kinds of things that never end up in the newsletter, so this spot in the header here is just a quick run down of what I've done recently that I didn't want to devote an entire segment to:

• An old t-shirt design I stumbled upon on my hard drive: LINK​
• The Tools vs the Art: LINK​
• Podcast Episode 157: Can I Use AI For My Art?​
• Patreon: Getting A book Deal Series: Part 3 and Part 4​

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1) My New Keyboard

From the Department of Tools and Equipment

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It's called the CREATOR MICRO* and it's more than just cool looking, it actually is increasing my productivity. I'm always looking for ways to improve my workflow and one of the problems is having to glance at your keyboard all the time to make sure you're hitting the right hot key.

When I saw an ad for this on IG I knew right away this was the mini keyboard I was looking for. It's fully customizable, you can make the keys do whatever combination of key strokes you want. It's easy to tactilely navigate, and I'm already getting to the point where I don't have to look down at my hand to know what button I'm pushing.

It's perfect for anyone who works on a desktop in Photoshop/ClipStudio and it's already shaving off chunks of time in my workflow. You can learn more about this micro keyboard here: LINK​

And order one for yourself here: LINK​

Also...due to the opaque alchemy that is the instagram algorithm I posted a reel about this thing that has, at the time of this writing, over 600,000 views. I'm baffled. It only has 1.5k views over on Youtube.

*This is not a sponsored email, I just love this thing and wanted to share it with you.

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PATREON: I'm doing a series of posts on getting a book deal. This isn't a case study of a book deal I've landed in the past. This is a week by week, play by play of me currently trying to land a deal with one of the major New York publishers.

I'm sharing my strategies, my email interactions, notes I'm getting from my agent, missteps, and rejections. You see concept art, the gnarly stuff that's discarded, but also the polished stuff I'm sharing with publishers. We are in part 4 this week of a multi-part series that will end when the book get's published!

Sign up now: LINK​

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​

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2) The Flying Jeep

From the Military Vehicles Division

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The V-1 Jeep was a concept created by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in the late 50's. The idea was to have an open fuselage helicopter that you could easily switch out the cargo space with whatever you wanted. It was to be compact, and maneuverable. The design even had ramjet powered rotor which kept the engine compact and low maintenance.

This thing looks like a G.I.Joe toy from the 80's. I love it's utilitarian design. A concept artist I follow online, but forget who it was now, noted that sometimes no thought for aesthetics in engineering actually produces some of the most appealing designs.

More info here: LINK​

and here: LINK​

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3) Kevin Hong's Dragon Couriers

From the Illustrators Division

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New York based artist Kevin Hong is a Korean-American illustrator who seems to be dialed into drawing everything I love. I was thinking of just sharing a medley of his work here, but this Dragon Courier illustration series really caught my eye. Imagine Kiki's Delivery Service, but it's in a fantasy world and the girls ride dragons instead of brooms.

His style is a pretty straight forward western Japanese hybrid like you see in the European comics scene, but I think where he shines is his color and concepts.

There's another idea he has on his website that's essentially the dragon couriers but it's in the future and the fantasy is replace with technology and it just looks so well thought out and developed.

I'd love to see more of anything he makes. Hoping he does a comic or something someday!

Website: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Tumblr: LINK​

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4) Arcade Machine Papercraft

From the Office of Arts and Crafts

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Okay, this looks like a fun project. This is a project designed by French illustrator Pierre-Marie Postel. Postel uses his illustrations to discover his own nostalgic universe of Japan.

From his about page: "His works reinterpret the codes of vintage and Japanese advertising from the 60s in a contemporary way, with occasional nods to pop culture such as manga or anime."

He's got a lot of great stuff on his website...too much to share here, but I thought these arcade things were a lot of fun.

I'd actually like to design my own papercraft arcade machines based on my characters and worlds....spitballing here...and give away the PDFs...maybe as an incentive to sign up for this newsletter? (I did something similar for Gallery Nucleus once, but it wasn't papercraft, and it wasn't for free)

What do you think?

Download the Postel's PDF print files here: LINK​

More images of his arcades here: LINK​

Postel's Website: LINK​

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5) On the reward

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I listened to an interview this week with a Youtuber I like and the host said something profound that I think applies to all creative careers.

They were talking about how you have to go years sometimes where you don’t make any money from your work, and you just do it as a hobby. And how sometimes people give up because they're not making enough money from the endeavor. Which is fair, you've got to be responsible.

And then the host says something profound:

You essentially have to do it, “as if you have nothing to lose…” and then he added “and nothing to gain.” LINK​

I keep thinking about that last part. “Do it as if you have nothing to gain. “

Most of the successful creators on youtube, in music, comics, film, and writing, all have these long stretches of doing their thing without any reward. It's an important part of the process, because you discover the real reason you do the work: The work is its own reward.

Financial and critical success may never come from doing the work, and even if it does, it will fade over time. What stays, what you're always left with is doing is the work. Do it as if you've got nothing to lose and nothing to gain.

See the entire interview here: LINK​

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

-Jake

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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)

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I'd appreciate any of these when you can. Thanks!

>>Any amazon link I post is an affiliate link<<

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