Issue 175

Hello!

Just got back from a trip up in the mountains. It was a nice refresh for me, and now I'm ready to get back down to it. Launching something pretty exciting next week, which you can read all about below!

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

Enjoy!

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:

• I'll have a table at LIGHTBOX in October: LINK​
• I'm on Threads now: LINK​
• Hope you had a happy 4th: LINK​
• How I use my date stamper: LINK​
• Drawing Livestream: LINK​
• Podcast Episode 166: AI Can Never Be Original​
• Patreon: ROBOTS cover process: LINK​

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1) Ryder's Intergalactic Guide to Robots, Powersuits, and Mechs

From the Special Projects Unit

​NEXT WEEK - I'll be launching my next Kickstarter: a book all about ROBOTS​

After the huge success of the SPACESHIPS book I knew almost immediately my next project had to be a ROBOTS BOOK.

Like the spaceships book, ROBOTS will have a mix of everything:

• Sketches.
• Finished renders.
• Cross sections.
• A bunch of stuff from the drawings books​
• and a comic story threaded through the whole thing

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I'd love as many people as possible to back this thing on DAY ONE, and here's why:

Kickstarter will only promote highly successful kickstarters to other people.

If a project is funded a few hours and shows continued growth in the first 24 hours, their algorithm says, "We got ourselves a winner here!" and they use their marketing oomph to get the word out. Why? Because they get 5% of the money that's raised, and it just makes business sense to promote the winners.

They love the extra money, and I love it because for every person who backs the project, Kickstarter matches that by getting someone else to back it.

And every kickstarter brings new people to stories I'm telling through my books and art. Perhaps you're here because you've found me through one of my kickstarters in the past. If so, thanks for sticking around!

Click here to get notified on the launch: LINK​

THANK YOU!

PATREON: I just paused an 8 part series on getting a book deal while I wait for some feedback from my agent. In the meantime I'm sharing all my strategies, ideas, and the book building process of my next Kickstarter project: ROBOTS.

Patrons are seeing concept art, the process posts, the writing posts, and everything that goes into making these books. Here's the breakdown of how I made a complex cover illustration like this, with multiple characters:

Sign up now: LINK​

The amount of support on my Patreon ebbs and flows, but always hovers around 125-130 people. We are now at 138! So close to my goal of 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​

2) Benoit Tallec's L’Intrépide Cafe Racer: Ooh là là!​
​From the Office of Wheels

​Cafe Racer's always catch my eye, whether I see them on the road or online. But this one, a bike aptly named "L’Intrépide" is something really special. Designed by Benoit Tallec as a personal project. Apparently, Tallec wanted to prove that you could take the uninspired design of a late 70's BMW R100RS and make something that would turn heads on the street. Safe to say that he nailed it.

I love its retro futuristic styling, and would love to see this approach applied to something like a star wars speeder bike.

Tons more photos and a nice write up here: LINK​

Benoit Tallec's website: LINK​

3) Kiyomi Tanaka's Jaw-Dropping VF-1 Cutaways

From the Office of Cutaways

This is the real deal. This guy knows what he's doing. I'm floored at how perfect these things are. Makes me think that Japanese illustrator Kiyomi Tanaka has some kind of engineering background. According to Anime News Network he's worked on all the major mecha anime from the 80's and 90's as a layout artist. The layout artist is the one that takes the rough storyboards and draws what the background scene is actually going to look like so the painters can just go in there and add color and light. You REALLY have to have some drawing chops to do that job. And this guy has it.

You can see more cutaways (bigger images) and designs on Kiyomi Tanaka's Pixiv page here: LINK​

4) The paper magic of Guy Pradel

From the Illustrators Division

Every once and while you see something that's such a genius idea yet so simple you wonder why you didn't connect the dots yourself.

French artist Guy Pradel didn't do it just once, but twice.

First, with this amazing choose your own adventure folded comic:

And second with this choose your own adventure map:

Pradel is one of those individuals with imagination AND work ethic. It seems like he's always coming out with a new zine, comic project, or some fun paper thing like what I shared above.

Please check out more of his work on his website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Tumblr: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

5) On boredom

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I just got back from a family vacation that was four days the mountains with no cell service and spotty wi-fi at a main lodge about 150 yards from the cabin we were staying in.

What was interesting about this trip was the stretches of absolutely nothing to do. I found myself feeling something I hadn't felt in a long time: boredom.

I actually relished it, and for a good 30 minutes one day just stared out at the forest.

I didn't try to use the time to think about my next project, or to deconstruct my life and figure out how to improve it. I just sat there.

Eventually the spots of boredom became less novel and I had to get up and do something. The stuff I ended up doing had a lot more flavor to it.

I came home refreshed and ready to rock-and-roll. I also found myself coming up with ideas I hadn't thought to put together before.

I realized that perhaps I need to figure out how to be bored a little more. It reminded me of this image I saw pop up in my feed last month:

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(Source: @OzolinsJanis)

And this quote by writer Nicholas Carr nails it:

This week instead of instinctively reaching for the phone, hide it from yourself and stare out a window, go for a walk (if it's not 100+ degrees out), or wash the dishes. In other words...get bored.

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:

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