Issue 149

Hello!

A quick follow up from last week since so many of you sent in well wishes for Alison. She is feeling much better now and is back to almost normal.

This week was a nice mix of freelance work and chipping away at the Spaceships book. I've been grooving out to Vince Guaraldi Oaxaca and Bill Evans which just puts me in a chillsome mood.

Alright, read on, there's 5 things I thought you'd find interesting this weekend.

Enjoy!

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1) Blender to the Rescue

From the Art Department

I had a few comic pages to do with the ship on the cover of the Spaceships book and instead of trying to figure out its complex shape over and over again, to save time I made a rudimentary model in blender.

Not only did it save me the headache of constructing shots of the ship from different angles, but it actually made the drawings a lot cooler in my opinion. There's some nice perspective shots I have no idea how I would've achieved with out the model.

If you want to see my step by step process work for stuff like this, especially comic pages as I finish them, I'm posting all the time over on my patreon.

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2) The BEST part of Sonic 2

From the Concept Art Division

Earlier this year I went to see Sonic 2 with my kid and I was absolutely blown away by the quality tech and robot designs in the film. The show stealer though was the Robotnik Mecha at the end of the movie. It saved the film, if you ask me.

I was delighted to see this concept art for the robot posted on Artstation by one of my favorite artists Michal Kus.

You can see more Robotnik Mecha concept art here and here.

Watch the final battle here: LINK​

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3) Abstract Calligraphy

From the Department of Graphic Design

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Turkey based graphic designer Fatih Hardal does some elegant work.

As an armchair graphic designer I'm always on the look out for cool and interesting approaches to lettering and these abstract calligraphy pieces fit the bill. I love seeing how the artist chose to interpret the letters. Not only are they kind of fun to decipher, they're just really appealing on their own regardless if you can read them.

See more here: LINK​

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4) Soviet Cold War Era Drone

From the Air and Space Division

The La-17 looks like something out of an alternate history sci-fi video game. But apparently these things were developed, manufactured, and remained in service for 30 years.

I love the hodge-podeyness of their design with no concern for aesthetics. Looks like they just slapped a massive jet engine on the bottom and called it good. 10/10.

Tons more photos here: LINK​

Related: LINK​

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5) On careers

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I listened to an interview with Ken Burns this week on How I built This. In the interview, something stuck out to me. He says he never uses the word “career.” Instead he uses “professional life.”

I got from the interview that he went into filmmaking to make the kind of movies you would see in a theater, but ended up becoming a documentary filmmaker (maybe the world's greatest?) because he allowed himself to be exposed to a broader range of opportunities and not just focused on becoming his preconceived understanding of what a filmmaker is.

He clarified that a career is a form of imprisonment; a way of checking off boxes of prerequisites to achieve specific positions.

On the other hand, a professional life is driven by interests and abilities.

It got me thinking that when you are driven by your interests and abilities it opens up a world of opportunity to you. I used to think I couldn't start a business because artists aren't good at business. Or I couldn't write a book, because I'm just an illustrator. Or I avoided cool programs like Blender because I thought it would distract me from illustration.

When I was able to shake off the idea that an X only does Y, I was able to do so much more and feel way more fulfilled.

Not sure I want to abandon the word Career just yet, but I like the idea of thinking I’m building a “professional life” instead.

I recommend listening to this entire interview: 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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