Issue 169

Hello!

The past couple weeks I've been working on a bunch of freelance odds and ends. The rest of my work days have been taking care of other JP Creative odds and ends which includes but is not limited to:

- Website curation and updates

- 2023-2024 career planning

- Writing and world building

- Product design for new merch

It's been an odds and ends kind of month I guess. That means not a lot of new stuff to show this newsletter, which is why I'm sharing something from the archives.

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 was on the Sketchbook Podcast!: Listen to This IF You Want To Become a MASTER Artist​
• I made a short video about the Gape!: LINK​
• Skull Chaser Model: LINK​
• Podcast Episode 149: How Do I Refine My Portfolio?​
• Podcast Episode 151: Youtuber Illustrator Masterclass with Kelsey Rodriguez​
• Patreon Process Post: Concept Art for Accenture Commercial, 1 of 2​
• Patreon Process Post: Concept Art for Accenture Commercial, 2 of 2​

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1) Lipton Tea Robots

From the Archive Unit

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I've been going through my archives to update my website with freelance work and I came across these old robot drawings I made for a Lipton Tea commercial that I don't think ever got made. (Unless you remember seeing a Lipton Tea commercial with a cute robot in it, if so tell me where I can find it!)

I got this job because of an illustration I posted on Instagram. An art director saw it and said that's the robot we want for this job. I wasn't going to do anything with it anyway, so I obliged and we worked on refining it for their needs. Here's that original drawing:

I don't know if that's the best way to get consistent work these days, but back when there wasn't a ton of artists on Instagram, and there were a lot of art directors looking for artists it sure was a good way to get your work seen by the right people.

This is old work for me, but I thought it still has a certain kind of appeal and character to it that I hope is still found in my work today.

PATREON: 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​

This week on the Patreon: Destiny 2 Concept Art!​

2) Blue Rhino Studios

From the Flora and Fauna Unit

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I've been to my fair share of museums around the country. I make sure to visit one in every city I stay at for more than a day. One of my first art jobs what working at a natural history museum helping to design some exhibits. I got to paint some life sized models the museum ordered from some studio, do a couple of wall murals, and I even got to do some rock sculpting for one of the exhibits.

All this to say that nothing I've seen or worked on even comes close to the masterpieces coming out of the Blue Rhino Studio. The fidelity of their sculptures is just next level.

See tons more of their projects over on the website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Fascinating hour+ long interview with Tim Quady, President at Blue Rhino: LINK​

Comprehensive video and commentary of their life sized model of SUE: LINK​

3) Intricate Kowloon Walled City Drawing by Adolfo Arranz

From the Office of Cutaways

Have you ever heard of the Kowloon Walled City? It was a block of buildings...or one mega building that house 50,000 inhabitants in Hong Kong:

It was demolished in 1994, and is now a garden park type thing.

Graphics journalist Adolfo Arranz, who specializes in those incredible infographics you might see in a newspaper or an issue of national geographic, decided to take on the challenge of doing a cutaway illustration of this city, and I gotta say he really nailed it.

Big image hosted here: LINK​

Making of thread posted here: LINK​

Order a print of it here: LINK​

Check out Arranz's website here: LINK​

4) The cute yet cool drawings of Concept Artist Ryo Yambe

From the Illustrators Division

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I've seen Yambe's work here and there on the internet and it has always stopped me in my tracks. I'm a sucker for combining cute with cool, and Yambe does it masterfully and seemingly effortlessly.

Back in October I had the surprise pleasure of meeting him in person at Lightbox Expo. I was excited to pick up a copy of his new book collecting all of these drawings. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the printer, or shipping, or something and he didn't have any books with him. I hope he's able to sort that out because as far as I can tell there's no way to get a copy right now.

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

5) On the Fruits of Opportunity

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I've been thinking a lot lately about what direction to take my career in the coming months and years. There's a lot of opportunity out there and it's hard to parse out what's practical and what's going to be a waste time.

One thing I'm trying to balance out is making opportunity vs chasing opportunity.

The difference is an opportunity you make is usually born out of passion, and an opportunity you chase is usually born out of desperation.

My friend put it succinctly:

On the flip side, I've done passion projects that have born very little fruit, but boy was it sweet fruit.

Listen, I've got 5 kids and a mortgage so I'll take any fruit. But I just worry that chasing too much opportunity actually limits the amount of lasting success one might have in a career. James Clear looks at it this way:

The trick then is to set aside enough of yourself to work on projects that make opportunity so that those projects have the sunlight, nurturing, and fertile soil they need to make a ton of sweet fruit.

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

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