THE GAPE

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From the Comics Division

A massive monster, mouth wide open and a lone character courageously confronting it. I see this illustration trope a lot in comic covers. AND I LOVE IT.

I feel like there's one or two of these covers that come out every year. I decided to start collecting them in a folder as I come across them. If you know of any let me know. Here's the a bunch I have so far:

Really, if you know of any more of these, send me a link or email them to me for my collection.

-Jake

VR Workstations

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From the Concept Art Division

Every so often I talk to people who think that AR or VR aren't ever going to really catch on. They laugh at the goofiness of headsets and how helpless people look with them on. There's not a lot of virtual infrastructure or mass adoption yet leading some people to wonder what they'd even use a headset for. To play what? To meet up with who? BUT I can see a future where we are wearing these things all day.

Now, it mortifies me think that my kids and grandkids are going to spend a good part of their lives in a metaverse type situation. That they might be spending their days without seeing actual trees or sunlight. And if you think that's not going to happen, just go check your screentime from last week and multiply that.

However, I'm trying to see the silver lining here and one good thing about this is VR headsets are going to democratize workstations for people. Imagine not needing a laptop, or an ipad, or a big screen to work off of, or a synthesizer, or a mixing station. All you need is a headset. These tools are all barriers of entry for creators and removing them means so many more people are going to be able to create things.
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Greg Madison has caught this vision and decided to make a mock up of what that could look like. You can see his short demo here: LINK​

-Jake

Dashboard Gallery

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From the Office of Wheels

Found this great gallery of old dashboards on Flickr. I'm always paying attention to this kind of stuff because A) I love industrial design and B) I never know when I might need to design a dashboard for a comic or concept art job. I love industrial design because I think it's pretty cool to see how 100 different designers decided to solve the same problem. Some of these are really spartan with just the essentials (LINK). While others have every gauge, knob, dial, and lever available at arms length (LINK).

Also find it fascinating where some car companies will spend money on interior design, and others look like the interior was an afterthought...something for the engineers to handle.

You can see many many more dashboards here: LINK​

-Jake

Inks Are Finished!

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From the Making Comics Division

Inks are finished for this Issue One of Red Shift Renegades! Colors are coming along nicely too by Anderson Carman. I should have digital copies for sale soon.

One thing I love about these two pages was getting to draw the inside of Aven's ship and figuring out how to make it livable, but also functional. Also, I love drawing cities too.

You can actually watch me ink this last page over on Instagram: LINK​

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It's time to join the Patreon: Patrons are getting frequent updates on this comic, including more behind the scenes stuff. They've also read the full comic in both roughs, pencils, and now inks as I finish them.

I just dropped the Red Shift Renegades title logo reveal plus a detailed breakdown of how I designed it. You don't want to miss that.

I'm also sharing other art and sketches and stuff related to other projects. It's a treasure trove of information and cool art. When I finish this comic I'll have an exclusive special edition Artist Edition PDF for patrons.

Join here: LINK

-Jake

On Telling the Right Story

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From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I recently watched Walk the Line about Johnny Cash's sordid life of drug abuse, philandering, and reckless life decisions all the while trying to make really good music. It's a by-the-book biopic, with great actors, great writers, and great filmmakers operating at the top of their craft. I liked it. Cash is a flawed and broken man who is able to find a way to heal, and ultimately help others through his natural abilities as a singer/songwriter.

I especially liked its theme as stated by Cash's older brother in the opening scene. The two boys are laying in bed, and Johnny is lamenting the fact that his brother is so good, while he is such a bad kid. His brother reads the bible every night trying to know it front to back. His reason:

“...you can't help nobody if you can't tell them the right story.”

The film then goes on to break that idea down and build it up again through the events of Cash's life. He crashes and burns when he believes the wrong story about himself, but when he finally learns the right story about who he is, and who his story connects with he's not only able to help himself, but actually help others.

As a storyteller your reason for writing and drawing and crafting worlds and characters is to ultimately help others. Stories are how people process and digest the messiness of life. They offer a roadmap for healing. If you are failing to do this as a storyteller it might be because you aren't telling the right story.

So how do you tell the right story? You have to tell a story you know and you have to tell a story you believe.

-Jake

Fort of São João Baptista

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From the Exploration Unit

Here's a cool fort in Portugal I discovered online. How perfect is this??

This place was once a troubled monastery (pirates and bad weather) and was eventually abandoned. Then the king of Portugal was informed that it would be a great place to have a fortress, so he ordered construction on that and in 1678 they finally finished it.

I'm pretty sure this is the foundation of a thousand different environment concept designs for castles, fortresses, and evil lairs. Would love to visit this in person some day.

Here's more info about it: LINK​

And here's a informative guide to visiting this island: LINK​

-Jake

Becorn Photography

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From the Office of Small Things

Bird is a former LEGO designer turned pro photographer of miniature fantasy scenes. He crafts these sturdy little acorn folk in inquisitive and adventurous poses then waits for birds and other animals to interact with them to snap the perfect shot. The result is a peek into a fantasy world that exists right under noses.

Bird calls these guys Becorns. This would pair well with a viewing of Epic by BlueSky Studios, though I like the peaceful world of these little Becorn characters better.

Website: LINK​

Print shop: LINK​

Instagram: LINK

-Jake

Missile Mouse and the Raven

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From the Making Comics Division

Chipping away at the comic. Here's a page with Missile Mouse in his new suit. He also now has a cut in his ear from some scrape he got in a few years ago. So fun drawing this character again, and to have him be in a story. Can't wait to finish this thing and share it with you!

I should have Issue #1 one available in my shop this month, then I'm Kickstarting the full trade in April with Issues #2 and #3 coming out in May and July and the book shipping out after that.

It's time to join the Patreon: Patrons are getting frequent updates on this comic, including more behind the scenes stuff. They've also read the full comic in both roughs, pencils, and now inks as I finish them.

I'm also sharing other art and sketches and stuff related to other projects. It's a treasure trove of information and cool art. When I finish this comic I'll have an exclusive special edition Artist Edition PDF for patrons.

Join here: LINK​

-Jake

On Maintaining Airspeed

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From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I started this year with a vision, goals that supported that vision, strategy that supported the goals, a schedule to implement the strategy, and initiated the habits and practices that would help me make this vision a reality.

January went great. By February the screws started coming loose. I got casual with my schedule as other urgent and/or important things popped up. As I drifted from the habits and schedule I formed in January I noticed the work started suffering too.

Then I was reminded of this idea from on of my favorite self-mastery books: Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

"When things go haywire, your best opening strategy might be to return -very carefully and consciously- to the habits and practices in play the last time you felt good about the work."

From Art and Fear, page 57.

I didn't want to stall completely. I've been there before and to pull out of a stall is not easy. Sometimes it takes months or years! Realizing I was losing altitude (to continue with this metaphor) I needed to realign the rudder and blast the engines to get this project back to a proper airspeed.

The engines of your project aren't your goals or your vision or your strategy, they are your habits.

For me, that's doing creative work in the mornings when I'm sharp, instead of evenings when I'm easily distracted. It's priming my environment (both physical and digital) to make the next action easy. And it's having a bias towards action instead of endless preparing and hedging.

To get back on track this week I focused in on these habits, which got my airspeed up, and made significant progress on the comic in the last several days.

Return to your creative habits...something to consider if your project has stalled.

-Jake

The Fantastic Imagination of Lucas Roussel

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From the Illustrators Division

This guy. It's rare that I find someone I think is making something truly unique. Rousel combines the bizarre with the familiar in such a way that I can't immediately like it, yet I can't stop looking at it. I want to say his style is as if Shaun Tan and Miyazaki's Nausicaa work had a baby.

Just go over to his Art Station profile and spend your afternoon there. Really wish he'd make a book or something.

Art Station: LINK​

Website: LINK​

-Jake

The Ancient and the Wise

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From the Flora and Fauna Unit

Photographer Beth Moon has been documenting the lives of the sacred and ancient Baobab trees of Madagascar since 2006. When she heard that one ancient tree had died she had to return to see it for herself and preserve its death through her photography.

The tree was named Tsitakakoike, meaning “the tree where one cannot hear the cry from the other side." It was about 1400 years old and locals say it was the home of their ancestor's spirits.

She shares her experience in this simply captivating slideshow/video experience: LINK​

-Jake

Cyberdecks

From the Industrial Design Desk

I kind of knew this was a thing, but I didn't know it's REALLY a thing. Cyberdecks are just custom built laptops...which sounds super lame on paper.

These things are anything but that. Cyberdecks are the custom built laptop you would have made in the year 2022 that Ridley Scott envisioned back in the 70's. Built with scraps of other computers, off the shelf components, and 3D printing giving them an intentionally edgy cyberpunk aesthetic.

You can find a bunch of them with instructions for how to build your own at the Cyberdeck Cafe: LINK​

Also, do yourself a favor and just google image search cyberdeck. Check out these gems I found:

Red Shift Renegades

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From the Making Comics Division

Massive Comic process update on the Patreon: LINK​

I'm just about done with the first chapter. Should be able to knock out the last two pages today and tomorrow. If you want to see the entire comic so far, plus page-by-page commentary on both the inks and the pencils check out the Patreon.

Join here: LINK​

Also, did an IG livestream with my wife you can watch here: LINK​

-Jake

The Star Catcher

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From the Art Department in cooperation with the Online Sales Unit

NEW PRINT!

I haven't updated my shop with a new print in well over a year. This is the Star Catcher, a reminder that you can't wait for your dreams to come shooting down to you on the ground. No, you need a lot of rope and the grit to go catch a them yourself.

Each print makes use of archival inks and quality paper stock to stand the test of time.
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Two sizes:
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- 16 x 20
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- 11 x 14
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Signed. Ships in an indestructible fat tube, packaged with love.

ORDER HERE: LINK​

-Jake

On the Random

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From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I've been thinking and working on this idea of "re-wilding" your imagination for the last six months. I think it's important to have your finger on the pulse of popular culture, but that can also be a crutch for creativity. How do avoid making derivative work when you are drinking from the same well as everyone else?

How do you make something new?

This question is always sitting at the back of my mind, so when I read this quote from Gregory Bateson, it resonated with me instantly.

First, Gregory Bateson was, according to his wikipedia entry, "an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields." When you're into that many varied things, and not just into them, but an expert in those fields you tend to have an understanding of the world that your average instrgram surfer doesn't get.

Here's what he said:

No system (neither computer no organism) can produce anything new unless the system contains some source of the random.

Great. So how do you introduce more random into your life? Well, for one thing you can avoid anything that uses an algorithm to populate a feed. In fact, probably avoid anything that has a "feed" as a feature. The social media algorithm is designed to A) show you what you are familiar with and known to like and B) keep your eyes glued on that screen and tapping as long as it can. I can think of 5 other things you can do, but I'll save those for another letter.

Assignment for the week, seek out situations and platforms that get you acquainted with more randomness.

-Jake