On labels

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

A friend of mine pointed me to this incredible (and best of all short) NC State commencement speech by recent graduate Kelsey O'Connor.

You can watch it here: LINK

The central message is that external identities aren't the most accurate way to see other people, or yourself. After her life was shattered by a traumatic head injury she couldn't be the things she always thought she was, and instead had to rebuild her identity. Instead of focusing on what she was alway doing, she instead focused on what she was being. Once she did that for herself, she started looking at others the same way. It completely changed her life. In her words:

I would start describing people not by their labels but by three things:

their attitude,

the way that they treat others,

and what makes them uniquely beautiful.

Instead of describing my roommate as an engineer I would first tell you that she is a kind intelligent adventurous girl who loves her family deeply.

and also:

...who we are internally is the root of what we do and what we produce. To the world your roles in life are going to change whether it's a relationship role, a role in a job, but you are so much more than your role.

So you might be going to do work in engineering but that means you're going to be an intelligent problem solver. You might be going to do social work, but that means you're going to be a compassionate community member.

This was summed up nicely by another friend of mine:

"I’ve come to believe that labels can be empowering in the short run, they are liabilities in the long." -Kohl Glass

This tracks with my life experience. When I stopped focusing on what I did (drawings and illustrations) and started focusing on what I am (a problem solver, a knowledge sharer, and a storyteller) my whole world opened up and I realized I was much more capable to take on things that I never thought an "artist" could do...like start a business, self publish, or do youtube videos.

Take a minute and think about your labels and if they're actually serving you or are just a liability you can't let go of.

-Jake

The Stormtrooper Mechs of nohkunho

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From the Office of Robots

Who knew Stormtroopers and Gundams would mix so well? Like peanut butter and chocolate these two things just seem to compliment and enhance each other.

Japanese model maker nohkunho does some incredible work. He sticks to the Gundam genre mostly, but remixes them with other iconic figures. There's a ton more to see on his Twitter account: LINK​

and Website: LINK

-Jake​

Jean-Frédéric Waldeck's 19th Century Illustrations of Mesoamerica are phenominal

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From the Illustrators Division

I found some nice clean scans of an 1866 tome filled with illustrations by 19th century French artist Jean-Frédéric Waldeck.

I believe these are lithographs, which is a brilliant solution for mass producing art before their was photography and scanners. The Met has a nice breakdown on their website of how this was done here: LINK​

In my mid twenties my wife bought me a year pass to the Dallas Museum of Art and a few days a week I would go there on my lunch break and draw artifacts in my sketchbook.

I loved doing that so much that this kind of illustration always makes me stop and daydream about what it would've been like to travel to the jungles of central america and just fill sketchbooks with artifact and architecture drawings like these.

You can see more of Waldeck's illustrations from "Palenqué et autres ruines de l'ancienne civilisation du Mexique" here: LINK

-Jake​

The Sky Chapel of Ethiopia

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​From the Arts and Culture Unit

I think this place is amazing and full of story potential: A thousand feet above the Ethiopian desert sits a church carved into the side of a massive rock mountain. It's called Abuna Yemata Guh and it's over 1500 years old.

The ascent to reach the chapel involves a strenuous hike , crossing a rock bridge, a a vertical rock wall climb, then a narrow path with a 300 meter sheer drop on one side.

If you're afraid of heights, this isn't the pilgrimage for you...or maybe it's a way to overcome the phobia?

However, once inside the chapel there's beautiful well preserved fresco paintings of old testament prophets and new testament apostles.

Oh, and one more cool thing, there's an old monk who lives there. Not sure if he makes the ascent every day or if he just hangs out up there 24/7...but I'm getting Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade vibes from this.

Watch this incredible video here: LINK

-Jake​

Pterotech Fly Rider

From the Drawings Unit

I took the week off last week to visit Utah and spend some time outside. It was EXACTLY the thing I needed. I came back refreshed and had a bunch of great new ideas.

One thing I learned from the trip was that watching my son Tate fill spare minutes with drawing made me realize I don't actually draw that much, and hardly ever for practice or exploration these days.

I decided that when I got back home I'd devote at least an hour a day to fun/exploration drawing.

And this is what I made yesterday and today:

Thought I go back to my roots and design a robot rider.

Might have to do a few more of these and make it a small series.

Here's a couple more robots from the sketchbook:

PATREON: I'm doing a series of posts on getting a book deal. This isn't a case study of a book deal I've landed in the past. This is a week by week, play by play of me currently trying to land a deal with one of the major New York publishers.

I'm sharing my strategies, my email interactions, notes I'm getting from my agent, missteps, and rejections. Patrons are seeing concept art, the gnarly stuff that's discarded, but also the polished stuff I'm sharing with publishers. We are in part 8 this week of a multi-part series that will end when the book get's published!

Sign up now: LINK​

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

-Jake​

On what the audience wants

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

This week I watched a 13 minute video that 60 minutes did on Rick Rubin and was just mesmerized the whole time. Rubin is a producer in the music world who seems to be some kind of musician whisperer. He's worked with just about every major artist yet doesn't play an instrument, read music, or knows how to work a mixer.

What he HAS mastered is how to pull the best out of the people who work with him. He leans hard on gut feelings and helping artists push the envelope in their work.

At the end he says something that hit me like a lighting bolt:

"The audience comes last. The audience doesn't know what they want. The audience only knows what's come before."

- Rick Rubin

I think this is the most important thing to remember when you're creating something.

We are living in an age of content. There's more TV, movies, comics, and music that can be consumed then there are eyes to see it all. The entertainment industry is built on an economy of cheap imitations of good things.

AI is only compounding this as all it's capable of making is imitations of what's been fed into it. Algorithms are designed to figure out what you're interested in and ONLY show you derivatives of that.

All of this is made to satisfy a mass audience that avoids things that challenge their conceptions of what they like.

So what stands out? What cuts through the noise? What wakes people up?

Creating something that only YOU could create. Make that first, worry about the audience later.

Watch the Rick Ruben 60 minutes episode here: LINK

-Jake​

The Risograph Radness of Wren McDonald

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From the Illustrators Division

Wren McDonald is an illustrator based in Hudson Valley, NY. As an educator at SVA's RisoLAB he has access to the unique Risograph machines that give his prints the texture and richness they exude.

Not sure what risography is? Here's a nice colorful explanation: LINK​

Wren's work drips with personality and playfulness. You can see more of his work here:

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

Tumblr: LINK​

I just snagged an Akira zine and one of these stickers from his shop!

-Jake

House Cave

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From the Architecture Desk

Found this cool House Cave designed by Spanish Architect office UMMO Estudio.

I love seeing how people incorporate dwellings into the landscape and cave houses are one of my favorite subgenre of living spaces.

This whole space just looks cozy and safe. Though I can imagine there's all kinds of bugs that want to live there too, haha.

More photos and info here: LINK

-Jake

Sketchbook Junk

From the Drawings Unit

I've been on a freelance job since March that wraps up this week. I'm grateful for the work, but as I was looking for art to post in this newsletter I just realized how little I've drawn outside of the job for the past 4 months. These sketches are from April, and my sketchbook has one drawing in it from May and one from June!

The only other drawing I've been doing has been some character designs for a book proposal I'm hoping to go out with in July. More details on that below👇.

This should change in the coming weeks as I plan on launching a kickstarter for a sequel to my SPACESHIPS book. More details on that coming soon!

PATREON: I'm doing a series of posts on getting a book deal. This isn't a case study of a book deal I've landed in the past. This is a week by week, play by play of me currently trying to land a deal with one of the major New York publishers.

I'm sharing my strategies, my email interactions, notes I'm getting from my agent, missteps, and rejections. Patrons are seeing concept art, the gnarly stuff that's discarded, but also the polished stuff I'm sharing with publishers. We are in part 7 this week of a multi-part series that will end when the book get's published!

Sign up now: LINK​

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​