Gobli Prin

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From the Illustrators Division

Remarkable character designs by Tokyo based illustrator Gobli Prin. If Yoshitaka Amano and old school Hayao Miyazaki had a baby you'd get the work of this artist. And yet, some how I think he's bringing something of his own to the table besides just his style. I don't know what he's cooking up, but I want to see a world book or comic or game based on his designs. Hoping this all leads to something!

I wish there was more out there about him; a website or something, but all we have are his twitter and instagram: LINK and LINK​

-Jake

Alien Organic Robot

From the Office of Robots

This robot design by Japanese model maker nozomu looks like something from a fever dream. I love the organic shapes with small accents of rigid mechanical engineering. Such a cool design!

That red light is a nice touch. Looks like its scanning my soul. What do you think this thing is? A reconnoissance drone? A weapons platform? A communications amplifier? I kind of love its ambiguity.

Via: LINK​

-Jake

The Chronicle of Georgia

From the Cultural Archives Concern

When I first saw a photo of this monument I thought it was an environment of some fantasy video game or something. Nope, it's an actual place, and the scale of it is massive.

From the Chronicle of Georgia Wikipedia "There are 16 pillars that are between 30–35 meters tall and the top half features kings, queens and heroes while the bottom part depict stories from the life of Christ."

Definitely want to visit this place some day. And will be using it for inspiration in environment design for a comic.

More photos here: LINK and LINK

-Jake

On what's real

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

From that article on Bontecou in the NY times I learned that at the height of her fame she left the New York art scene, disappeared from the art world, and moved to Pennsylvania to raise her daughter while making art in private.

I loved this bit towards the end of the piece:

She also objected to the notion that her retreat from the New York art scene constituted a disappearance from the art world — as if the art scene and the art world were one and the same. “I’ve never left the art world,” she told Ann Philbin, the director of the Hammer Museum. “I’m in the real art world.”

It is a reminder to me to check myself and see which art world I inhabit. Is the real art world I'm in the one of social media, portfolio sites, and online shops? Or is it the one at home and in the studio where life and creation are in harmony with each other?

Because the art you make is a product of the world you inhabit.

-Jake

The patchwork floating sculptures of Lee Bontecou

From the Arts and Culture Unit

I don't follow the fine art world too closely, and upset that I'm only now discovering the work of Lee Bontecou after her passing this week thanks to the rush of interest to remember her and her work.

There is a nice write up about here in the NYTimes here: LINK​

Blurring the line between what is a painting and what is a sculpture, there's an industrial beauty to her sculptures. They remind me of the organic shapes machines and factories can sometimes exhibit as they try to accomplish processes that were born in nature.

She really was a nexus of universes, using her art to show us something only she knew about.

See more of her work here:

Moma page: LINK​

Artnet.com: LINK​

-Jake

Retro Video Phones

From the Cultural Archives Concern

I found a bunch of cool retro video phone designs from the previous century while researching industrial design styles for Red Shift Renegades. Thought I'd share them with you here.

What I love about these is how tactile and touchable they are. This is the future I imagined I'd be living in when I daydreamed in school about me being a 45 year old in the far flung year of Two Thousand and Twenty Two.

Who would have thought we'd all be just scrolling on a single universal rectangle of glass and metal. That's it's own kind of cool I guess, but I do love knobs, buttons, and big screens.

-Jake

Space Fairies

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From the Drawings Unit

Exploring the idea of what sci-fi fairies might look like. I want to sneak these guys into red Shift Renegades some how.

I'll be starting work on issue 2 in December. Picking up right where issue 1 left off.

PATREON: Join now and see how I made these illustrations from start to finish. Every week I show patrons the process of at least one drawing. 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 courage

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Been thinking a lot lately about the current state of creators and people's relationship with their creations. I think things have never been this good for an indie creator...yet I know there's still a lot of risk involved because it feels like the world has never been more volatile.

Looking at the creator landscape though love seeing who becomes successful at this path. And it has less to do with originality and ideas and more to do with consistency and connection.

Novelist and art theorist André Malraux puts it nicely:

"Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk—and to act."

-André Malraux

Have the courage this week to bet on yourself for one thing. Keep repeating until you succeed.

-Jake

Völkerschlachtdenkmal

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From the Architecture Desk

​The Völkerschlachtdenkmal is a German monument constructed in 1913 honoring the Battle of Nations in Leipzig.​

It caught my eye as I was surfing Flickr a few months ago, and I've been thinking about its style and grandeur since. I love the scale of this thing. It is massive.

If the design doesn't look explicitly European to you it's because of unlike many monuments and buildings of the era, the monument lacks classicist style elements, instead borrowing from the architecture of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.*​

I really love the aesthetic. And it's directly influencing an illustration I've got on the drawing board today.

More images and history about it here: LINK​

and LINK

-Jake

How to Exploit AI's Main Weakness

From the Department of Video Works

​I made a video! First on since January this year. Not my most productive video making year, because I was focused on comics instead of videos and I'm pretty happy with that. However! I HAD to do a video on AI art and how to fight against it.

I think the battle needs to happen on two fronts:

1) Big societal pressure against misuse of the technology, perhaps including class action lawsuits of some kind

and

2) Individual artists leaning into their humanity and creating work that connects with people

This video is about the latter. But perhaps I should make one about the former, too.

Watch it here: LINK​

​Patrons got to see and comment on this the night before. Trying to take good care of those folks who take good care of me. :)

-Jake

On the work itself

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Some two thousand year old clarity from Marcus Aurelius:​

“Those obsessed with glory attach their well-being to the regard of others, those who love pleasure tie it to feelings, but the one with true understanding seeks it only in their own actions…. Think on the character of the people one wishes to please, the possessions one means to gain, and the tactics one employs to such ends. How quickly time erases such things, and how many will yet be wiped away.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS

If your happiness is dependent on factors you can't control you're setting yourself up for a never ending string of heartache. You can't control how a project will be received. And even if something is successful, the spotlight has an attention deficit disorder, and soon moves on to something else.

However, by focusing on what you do have control over: your effort and how you do the work itself, you'll always have a sense of contentment.

And that is something that can't be wiped away.

-Jake

Polychromatic Motorbikes by Mikee Atendido

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From the Concept Art Division

I think these colorful motorbikes by Philipino artist Mikee Atendido are pretty fun. Got a nice Moebius vibe to them.

More of Atendido's art here: LINK

-Jake

The Alien Monuments of Stanisław Szukalski

From the Sculpture Division

​Moebius once said, "I am a nexus of universes. I belong to a class of people - I'm not alone in this- whose hand and eye are antennae, sensitive to a certain type of reality."

I feel like Szukalski is right there with him on that. He's one of a few artists who I feel like are living in a different reality than all of us, and we get glimpses of the universe they inhabit when we look at their work.

It's his sculptures particularly that haunt the recesses of my thoughts. They're human made, yes, but feel like they were discovered in an archeological pit on a long abandoned planet light years from here.

If you'd like to see more and learn more about this captivating artist here's some resources:

Struggle: The Art of Szukalski: LINK​

Official Website: LINK​

Nice gallery of images here: LINK​

There's also a documentary about this guy on Netflix that I'll have to check out one day.

-Jake

Lybian Battle Trucks

From the Office of Wheels

While doing research for the Spaceships book I remembered seeing photos of these civilian trucks that were repurposed for guerrilla warfare. A quick search took me to the website of Venice based, British photographer James Mollison.

I also found this short, but fascinating read: The Toyota Pickup Truck Is the War Chariot of the Third World.​

It's about the Toyota War of the 1987 Chadian-Libyan conflict, in which Chadian troops in nimble Toyota trucks were able to trounce the Libyan's with their tanks. Over 7 Libyan soldiers were lost for every Chadian.

Anyway, I love the aesthetic of these vehicles. There's a pinch of Mad Max to them and a dash of DIY. Looking at it thorough a concept art lens there's some creative design decisions being made here that I'd never think of.

You can see more here: LINK

-Jake

A Cloaked Traveler

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From the Art Department

Yesterday, I finally took some time to do some Inktober drawings. As I was searching for ideas of what to draw I remembered I started the month with a cloaked character and thought I should return to that character.

This drawing is for Day 30: Gear, so I gave him a bunch of electronic equipment to carry. I have no idea what this guy is doing with all this stuff...but something is starting to brew.

I just shared some sketches and a little secret trick that I'm kind of embarrassed I used to design this guy over on the PATREON.

PATREON: You can see all the behind the scenes stuff and more like the start to finish creation of the SPACESHIPS book and other art, including secret stuff I can't share publicly. Sign up here: LINK​