Issue 193

Hello,

The heatwave continues here in AZ, as it is around the US. Hope you are staying cool. I'm really looking forward to going up to the mountains in a few weeks to escape this furnace.

Okay, here's FIVE things I thought you'd love as we roll into the weekend!

Enjoy!

STAYING IN THE LOOP:

• 3PP Podcast: When Can I Make What I Want to Make?​
• 3PP Podcast: Should You Join The Exodus To Cara?​)​
• ​Optimus Prime does not play games.

1) Comics Workshop!

From the Office of Online Education

With the ROBOTS book wrapped up and on a boat to the USA from my printer in Hong Kong I turned my attention to putting together a short 2 Day workshop on creating comics.

You might have seen the email I sent about it yesterday. We are already getting people enrolled and I think it's going to be an amazing couple of days.

I just want to see more people making comics, and doing it at a professional level. That's why I'm sharing my process, theory, and skill stack for making comics.

If you love comics and have always wanted to be a part of the comics scene this upcoming weekend workshop is for YOU.

Whether you want to self publish your own comics or work with one of the major publishers, the time-saving tactics, storytelling techniques, and time-honored practices I’m sharing in this workshop are going to help you get there.

July 20th and 27th. Mark your calendar, and enroll today: LINK​

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PATREON:

Get a front row seat of the ROBOTS book creation on Patreon: LINK​

I'm posting my process for all my art on the patreon. If you'd love getting more behind the scenes content and learn a little more how I approach creativity, project management, and business strategies I post over there at least one a week. Consider signing up!

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) A Pulpy Collection of Dark Book Covers for The Shadow

From the Office of Dusty Old Books

I found a bunch of The Shadow book covers on Flickr and just love the breadth of style and design these covers have. Really fun stuff. The Robots book has a space noir comic in it and I thought it would be cool to make a little stand alone one shot of it, but it needs a cover design. So I've been looking at old pulp novels for ideas and had to share these with you.

I don't know the artist for these, my internet sleuthing has come up empty so if you know who did this, let me know.

This is by no means a comprehensive collection of The Shadow covers, but the rest I've found are here: LINK​

3) "THE LITTLE BRAVE TAILOR" by Olga Dugina & Andrej Dugin

From the Illustrators Division

​

No doubt you've seen the art of German based illustration duo Olga Dugina & Andrej Dugin around the library or online. They are known for their intricate and fantastical illustration style. The two seamlessly work together to create detailed and bizarre renaissance style art.

I recently came across their work again and revisited it with a fresh eye and had to share it here.

You'd expect this type of art to be hanging in obscure pop galleries in Europe, which it has, but you'd be forgiven if you didn't expect these two illustrators to apply their trade to the world of children's books, which they have.

They make the kind of books that ignite imaginations no matter what age you are. I love that they take the medium seriously.

More here:

Behance: LINK Nice big images

Website: LINK Bad small images

4) Round up of some wild Japanese model making

From the Modeling Division

By おずねこ (@0Zcat)

By katoya (@katoya01)

By ヤスヒロ (@hair_chira)

By kenny (@1303kenny)

By E D E (@eddy_murao_bis)

By (@makoto_krieger)

By ナトリタカシ (@butakinoko2020)

By SA (@zukamako)

I love the boundless creativity these model makers have. In some cases they've pushed the craft of kit bashing into the world of abstract fine art with shape, texture, and composition being more important than the functionality of the design.

5) On Sustainable Pace

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Ok, this is funny, but there's truth to it.

Author Neil Gaiman said,

NYTimes Commentator David Brooks said

And the great American conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein said

There's a temptation to quit your day job and jump head first into your passion. Or to rent out a cabin for a month and draw your entire graphic novel.

Sometimes I get frustrated with my week and say to myself that I wish I didn't have all this administrative garbage to do, and all of this other junk to take care of so I could just spend a solid 8 hours each day pursuing my art.

The thinking is that you just need more time. You don't need more time, you just need to chip away at your dream project or dream scenario on little bit at a time.

Where do you find it? Author Austin Kleon says:

And I'll add: the few hours before everyone wakes up.

You can get a TON done by working in small chunks, at a sustainable pace. That's honestly how all of my self published books got made.

Be the persistent hunter. Create a habit of knocking out a little bit of your thing at the same time every day and be amazed at the results.

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

-Jake

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Weekend Reading:

​Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 1

by Hayao Miyazaki