Dai Heiwa Kinen Tō
From the Architecture Desk
Dai Heiwa Kinen Tō (translated: The Great Peace Prayer Tower), is a cenotaph tower in Japan. It'd dedicated to "the souls of all war victims in history, regardless of race, ethnic group, sovereign state, border, region, religion, religious denomination and creed."
This is such a bizarre direction for a monument and I love that it exists.
More info here: LINK
-Jake
Spaceship Splash Page
From the Art Department
I'm trying so hard to get this spaceships book out to the printer by next week, and there's a pile of coloring still to do on it. One page I've been dreading was this splash art from the foreword. I thought maybe I could just leave the sketchy version and call it good.
Then I thought that a rough sketch like what I had would be one of the first images you see in the book would just drag the overall quality down a few notches. No, the first image needed to be colored and polished a bit. So I rolled up my sleeves and 3 hours later, had this thing colored
Process art from sketch to final is over on the Patreon.
-Jake
On being a hero
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
From this interview of George Lucas by Bill Moyers:
“Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives. You can either help somebody, be compassionate toward people, treat people with dignity, or not. One way you become a hero and the other way, you’re part of the problem.” - George Lucas
That's all.
-Jake
Cistercian numerals
From the Arts and Culture Unit
I thought this was kind of cool. This was a number writing system created by a bunch of monks 700 years ago so they could write any number between 1 and 9999 in a single glyph.
Not easy for every day use, but when I'm sitting down to work on a comic it's cool to have stuff like this in the back of my mind and look for ways to add texture and dimension to the world I'm building.
Those bottom numbers are the year I was born and the current year. Then I tried stylizing them a bit to see what that could look like. I might start hiding these in my future comics!
Can you find the hidden zero?
More info on it here: LINK
Speaking of this, did you ever notice I hid a secret message in some of my youtube videos? Here's one of them:
here's another one:
Good luck figuring it out.
-Jake
WW0
in Concept Art
From the Concept Art Division
If you mashed a medieval aesthetic with WWI technology and threw in a dash of fantasy you'd get WW0. This is the part time project of concept artist and illustrator Andrius Matijosius and it rules.
Not sure what this will end up being exactly...a film? a game? an art book? a comic? Whatever it becomes it's sure to be some solid escapism.
See all the art here: LINK
Updates posted on his Artstation as well: LINK
-Jake
Cryptography Devices
From the Industrial Design Desk
I love finding art reference treasure troves, and cryptomuseum.com is overflowing with cool looking devices.
If you're curious about cryptography and all the technology that has supported it over the last 80 years then you will get lost on this website. If you're an artist that likes to design odd looking tech that's grounded in reality, these cryptography machines are perfect resource.
LINK
-Jake
Recent Spaceships
From the Art Department
Just a few spaceships I've colored up for the Spaceships book. Been sharing the process art from sketch to final over on the Patreon. I'm so excited to get this book finished and sent off to the printer in the next couple of weeks. Still a lot fo work to do on it, but there's a light at the end of this tunnel.
-Jake
On what you can make right now
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
I'm two episodes into Light and Magic which is a six part docu-series on Disney+ about the creation of ILM. I'm just loving every gosh darn minute of it.
As a special effects history buff, there's a lot of this that is a retread for me, but it's so great to hear the interviews with guys like Joe Johnston and John Dykstra. And it's fascinating to see art and stories all in context with each other swirled into the mythic history of the creation of Star Wars.
However, what I haven't been able to stop thinking about is the only reason Star Wars got greenlit was because George Lucas made a successful comedy film: American Graffiti.
Up to this point Lucas had only made edgy student films and dystopian sci-fi. All of it promising, but none of it really successful. He was issued a challenge by his peers: go make a comedy film George. One for the people and not for you.
So Lucas made a coming of age comedy that celebrated cruising culture and hot rods. It was a solid success. Instead of making more comedies he decided to take a wild swing and make a sci-fi opera. The rest is history.
My big takeaway from this is:
People want to make their Star Wars without making their American Graffiti first.
No one would've given Lucas the money or the resources needed to make Star Wars after THX-1138 bombed. Lucas wouldn't have had money to build ILM if he didn't have American Graffiti money. It took what looked like a sidequest or a detour for him to actually accomplish what he wanted to do.
I don't know what your "Star Wars" project is, but stand back and take an objective look at what you have in front of you and as my friend put it: “Figure out what you can make right now and make that.” (Thanks Kohl)
-Jake
Miracle Tank
From the Comics Division
I'm always on the lookout for finely crafted web comics and Mommy's Miracle Tank caught my eye. Written and drawn by LA-based artist Aaron Austin, it is about a goofball kid with a magic tank...and that's the most grounded thing in the 20+ pages posted so far.
It feels like a love letter to Akira Toryama and that's a good thing.
Excited to see where this goes.
Read it here: LINK
Aaron's website: LINK
Neat to see the seed of this idea in some old drawings of his from 2015/16: LINK
-Jake
Airborn
From the Film and Animation Division
These are screen grabs from a demo video made by Berlin-based Airborn Studios. Oh man this really got me excited. This is what I wish I could do with SkyHeart.
For more details, a bit of project background and credits check out their comprehensive blog post on Artstation: LINK
Watch the 2+minute video here: LINK
-Jake
A world of dinosauroids (with Simon Roy)
in Concept Art
From the Concept Art Division
Simon Roy (previously) answers the question "What would the world look like if dinosaurs had not gone extinct and instead evolved into intelligent species comparable to humans?" in his unique and imaginative way with a comprehesive exploration of a new species of animal he calls Avisapiens.
In this world Avisapiens look like large crows with weapons, art, and culture.
I absolutely love this stuff. Much much more to look at here: LINK
Be sure to scroll down to see the avisapien knight, moon landing, and astronaut evolution of these guys.
-Jake
A journey through Midjourney
From the Art Department
First off, for anyone who needs a primer on AI Generated Art here's a concise video on the subject to get you up to speed: LINK
I used Midjourney I started out with these prompts to see what I would get: Astronaut with a skull head +skull + skeleton + red spacesuit + character design + full body + red + sci-fi + star wars + Ralph McQuarrie + Jake Parker, cartoon, cartoon network, adventure time style:
Thought I'd mix it up and see what prompts like octane render + 3d would give me:
I didn't like what I was getting so I went back to my original prompts but added rubberhose animation + pixar + disney + 3d:
The results were better, so I asked for more variations. When I got these I decided I was getting diminishing returns and called it a day. Lots of interesting ideas to put into my design, but no one design really felt like it nailed the vibe I got from my original design.
After this experiment here's what I think:
1) AI Art Generators will only become more powerful/capable. So wishing it away is a waste of time. The only path forward is figuring it out how to implement it and how to regulate it.
2) With revolutionary technology comes a reorganization of status and power. The status quo HATES this and will do almost anything to stop it from happening.
AI Generated Art shifts the power (and wealth) of creating images from people who have training, to people who don't.
This reorganization happened in the 2000s when programs like Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Photoshop made art creation a lot more accessible to people who couldn't paint traditionally, or sculpt clay.
It allowed places like animation studios to be havens for creative people to make art who might not have been able to draw really well. Which really upset people who had trained to animate in 2D on paper, and who studied classical painting techniques. Which leads me to 3:
3) Not everyone who is creative can make art, and not everyone who can make art is creative. The creative people who could also adapt and learn new tools absolutely thrived in the new digital art world.
A lot of the art I've seen generated from AI is a lot like hearing someone impersonate English but who doesn't know the language. It sounds right, but they aren't actually saying anything.
4) I see these AI Art generators as tools. Another resource for creative people to add to their toolbox to make them even more creative. Or at the very least, make their job easier.
5) AI isn't an end to end problem solver for productions. There's still a needs to be an artist to translate it into something usable. Someone needs to interpret AI art into something a modeler can model, or set designer can build.
Example: After a producer plugs a bunch of prompts from a script into Midjourney they take it to the art dept. The crew gets a brief from an art director and instead of a lot of back and forth, the art director points at a page of AI art and says "Make it look like this"
6) Questions I’m still thinking about:
- Do these AI Art Generators actually undermine illustrators, photographers, concept artists? Or does it actually elevate these industries?
- Is it bad to democratize something like art creation?
- Who truly benefits from this shift in power? Where is the money flowing to?
- Should artists have the option of their artwork being removed from the AI generator's databases? Or is any art you post online free game? Does the AI generator do anything different than what an artist does who has strong stylistic influences from other artists?
7) I'm still learning about this, and still reading up on all the pros and cons.
I would love to know your thoughts. We've been discussing it over on the Discord for a couple weeks now: LINK
I also posted this on IG and it blew up. I could not keep up with the comments. Over 750 of them! If you want to get a vibe check on what the broader art community thinks of this check it out here: LINK
-Jake
On careers
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
I listened to an interview with Ken Burns this week on How I built This. In the interview, something stuck out to me. He says he never uses the word “career.” Instead he uses “professional life.”
I got from the interview that he went into filmmaking to make the kind of movies you would see in a theater, but ended up becoming a documentary filmmaker (maybe the world's greatest?) because he allowed himself to be exposed to a broader range of opportunities and not just focused on becoming his preconceived understanding of what a filmmaker is.
He clarified that a career is a form of imprisonment; a way of checking off boxes of prerequisites to achieve specific positions.
On the other hand, a professional life is driven by interests and abilities.
It got me thinking that when you are driven by your interests and abilities it opens up a world of opportunity to you. I used to think I couldn't start a business because artists aren't good at business. Or I couldn't write a book, because I'm just an illustrator. Or I avoided cool programs like Blender because I thought it would distract me from illustration.
When I was able to shake off the idea that an X only does Y, I was able to do so much more and feel way more fulfilled.
Not sure I want to abandon the word Career just yet, but I like the idea of thinking I’m building a “professional life” instead.
I recommend listening to this entire interview: LINK
-Jake
Soviet Cold War Era Drone
From the Air and Space Division
The La-17 looks like something out of an alternate history sci-fi video game. But apparently these things were developed, manufactured, and remained in service for 30 years.
I love the hodge-podeyness of their design with no concern for aesthetics. Looks like they just slapped a massive jet engine on the bottom and called it good. 10/10.
Tons more photos here: LINK
Related: LINK
-Jake
Abstract Calligraphy
From the Department of Graphic Design
Turkey based graphic designer Fatih Hardal does some elegant work.
As an armchair graphic designer I'm always on the look out for cool and interesting approaches to lettering and these abstract calligraphy pieces fit the bill. I love seeing how the artist chose to interpret the letters. Not only are they kind of fun to decipher, they're just really appealing on their own regardless if you can read them.
See more here: LINK
-Jake
The BEST part of Sonic 2
in Concept Art
From the Concept Art Division
Earlier this year I went to see Sonic 2 with my kid and I was absolutely blown away by the quality tech and robot designs in the film. The show stealer though was the Robotnik Mecha at the end of the movie. It saved the film, if you ask me.
I was delighted to see this concept art for the robot posted on Artstation by one of my favorite artists Michal Kus.
You can see more Robotnik Mecha concept art here and here.
Watch the final battle here: LINK
-Jake
Blender to the Rescue
From the Art Department
I had a few comic pages to do with the ship on the cover of the Spaceships book and instead of trying to figure out its complex shape over and over again, to save time I made a rudimentary model in blender.
Not only did it save me the headache of constructing shots of the ship from different angles, but it actually made the drawings a lot cooler in my opinion. There's some nice perspective shots I have no idea how I would've achieved with out the model.
If you want to see my step by step process work for stuff like this, especially comic pages as I finish them, I'm posting all the time over on my patreon.
-Jake
On the niche
in I.T.U.
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
I just listened to a fascinating podcast interview with Emmett Shear who is the CEO and co-founder of Twitch. For years he was turned down by investors because his company served the gaming niche and well, you know how that turned out for him. (In 2014 Amazon bought Twitch for about $970 million in cash.)
There's an old saying, "Niche and get rich," meaning make something specific and deliberate for a small group and that group will go to the ends of the earth to support your work.
This principle isn't just for business. I think it works in life as well. I like how it's put here:
"I can't give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: Try to please everybody all the time." - Herbert Bayard Swope
When you try to please everyone, you neglect the people that mean the most to you. As someone who struggles with too much people pleasing, I needed this reminder this week.
-Jake
Hashima Island
From the Exploration Unit
You've probably seen this place in different movies, or may have seen the locations it's inspired in manga and video games. The first images I saw of it where from 2012's James Bond film Skyfall.
It was a coal mine for decades, and over the years buildings were added to support the workforce there, peaking at over 5000 inhabitants in 1959. For a couple of grim decades it was a slave labor camp as Japan forced Chinese and Korean war prisoners to work the mines.
Eventually petroleum replaced coal in the 1960s in Japan and the mine shut down.
Now it's a tourist destination, and a reference for a future location in my comics.
You can read the history of it here: LINK
-Jake