My newsletter gives people a 5 minute infusion of inspiration to help them stay motivated to create.
The 29 Year Design History of Missile Mouse
Hello!
Sorry I missed sending an email last week. I have been busy working on Children's Book Pro all week. We have about 2 more weeks of recording and then the class is done! Really proud of this one...and really excited to get this OFF my plate so I can get back to having the majority of my week be working on comics.
Here's 5 things I thought you'd appreciate this weekend:
1) The 29 Year Design History of Missile Mouse
From the Drawings Unit
Why do I keep coming back to this character after all these years?? I don’t know. Just when I think we’ve moved on from each other we get back to hanging out, going on adventures, fighting bad guys.
I guess there’s a lesson in here on never giving up on your OC, or nurturing creativity in teens, or maybe dragging something on for way too long.
Hope you got something out of it.
2) Fantastic Ukiyo-e Style Animated Short for Tokyo Olympics
From the Film and Animation Division
No these aren't ukiyo-e prints. These are stills from an animated short!
To promote the Tokyo Olympics on France TV they commissioned some brilliant team of artists to make this masterpiece. Unfortunately I can't figure out who made it.
Watch "Sumo - Jeux Olympiques d'été Tokyo 2021" here: LINK
3) I'd like to live in this world
From the Department of Creative Bank Accounting, Illustrators Division
I'm completely in love with the surreal yet calming illustrations of Chinese artist Jun Xingye.
See TONS more of his work here: LINK
4) Van Neistat is Making YouTube Videos
From the Arts and Culture Unit:
This is from the Arts and Culture Unit of JP Creative, because, well, this YouTube channel is art. Van isn't making YouTube videos, he's making FILMS.
I love the peaceful yet ambient vibe, the quiet industriousness of them, and especially that it's all narrated in the third person. His little bro is no stranger to YouTube, but clearly you can see why he looks up to his big brother so much. These videos have been my little, cool down treat at the end of the day.
I think YouTube is absolutely dominated by Millenial and Gen Z "content" creators, and suffers because of that. Van Neistat is a Gen X and his videos reflect a non digital, pre internet life that brings me back to my youth. It honestly feels like these were made in the 90s.
A couple favorites of mine:
Where the Spirited Man explains these "Unprecidented Times": LINK
Where the Spirited Man pines for a car he can't afford: LINK
Also, this interview with him about his career path is fascinating and think it should be standard viewing for High School graduates. LINK
5) The Value of Experience
From the Inspirational Thought Unit:
A quote I've been thinking about:
As Alison (my wife) can attest to, I've made a lot of career decisions based on what will give me more experience versus what's more secure. What we've found though is that security follows experience, but rarely does experience follow security.
One example: I quit my perfectly stable, six-figure job in the animation industry to try being an independent artist and make books and do freelance. It has been a scary, hard, and incredibly bumpy road...but it has been RICH with experience.
I can confidently say I am a much stronger and more capable version of my self by choosing this path over staying at the day job.
I'm NOT saying that my path is the path for everyone. I just bring this up to remind myself where I'm at now. Am I still letting experience be a part of the equation in my decision making? Or am I choosing security? And am I okay with that?
I get really introspective around my birthday (last Monday). And these are the kind of questions I ask myself.
Again, this last section is mostly for me to work things out...hopefully it's helpful for you too!
That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!
-Jake
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Hi! I'm Jake
My newsletter gives people a 5 minute infusion of inspiration to help them stay motivated to create.
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