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
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
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
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
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
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
From the Illustrators Division
I've been following Matt Rhodes since the early 2000s. He's an incredible artist who's work bridges the gap between concept art and illustration.
He's worked for years in the gaming industry on AAA titles, but the work that absolutely stuns me is his personal project TELLURION.
I was reminded by this when friend of the newsletter, Thomas, sent me an email suggesting this for the newsletter.
Here's Thomas's note in the email:
"He spent three years drawing more than 300 full-color panels. He said that he was terrible at dialogue and for a long time it kept him from doing a story. Then someone suggested he draw a story without dialogue. I was skeptical, but after a dozen images I was hooked, and binged the whole thing. It was surprisingly gripping.
It’s really a great example of not letting your weakness stop you from creating art."
A couple lessons here:
There is power in slow productivity. You can create something substantial by consistently chipping away at it image by image over time. No need to sprint.
Do work that plays to your strengths. Yes, you want to grow and improve in areas you are weak, but don't let those weaknesses be a roadblock to making something great.
Experience TELLURION here: LINK
Matt's Instagram: LINK
Artstation: LINK
Also, I love his version of DUNE: LINK LINK and LINK
-Jake
From the Office of Wheels
I've been revisiting Akira Toriyama's work recently and it's peppered with these magnificent tiny vehicles. Because I've never read Dragon Ball I don't think of him as one of my primary influences, but my tendency to draw cute characters in fun vehicles certainly came from him.
All this to say, if there was ever a car that embodied the Toriyama spirit it is absolutely GM's experimental electric bubble car the XP 512E.
The proportions!
Those little wheels!
The vermillion paint job!
That white stripe!
I love this thing.
Video here: LINK
More photos here: LINK
-Jake
From the Art Department
Last year I had the opportunity to work with Bungie on some designs for Destiny 2 and they FINALLY released them! Posted above are the finished assets for the game done by the artists at Bungie based on my concept art.
This was such a fun project! Here's some sketches I did:
If you want to see the rest of the work I did for Bungie, there's a TON more designs and process stuff for this project over on my patreon.
-Jake
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
I've been pondering the age old question: How does the artist/writer/performer/teacher/musician make an impact with their work?
Do they bend their work to fit with what sells? Or do they make something for that narrow niche of audience that aligns with their unique interests?
Or do you balance the two?
Comedian Janeane Garofalo had this to say on it (taken from this NYTimes article)
“Being popular and well liked is not in your best interest.
If you behave in a manner pleasing to most, then you are probably doing something wrong. The masses have never been arbiters of the sublime, and they often fail to recognize the truly great individual.
Taking into account the public’s regrettable lack of taste, it is incumbent on you to not fit in.” - Janeane Garofalo
This resonates with me...but the key ingredient to be successful doing this, ingredient that she doesn't mention is: You have to be really REALLY good at what you are doing.
(Via Chip Zedarsky's Newsletter. Thanks Kohl for sharing it with me)
-Jake
From the Comics Division
This looks like a cool comic. French artist Yvan Duque does the illustrations and they are magnificent. Like a mix of Eric Carle and Adventure Time.
I love the maps, the colors, the shapes. Putting this in my books-to-buy after my book buying freeze is over in 2023. Available on Amazon: LINK
More art here: LINK
Duque's Instagram: LINK
-Jake
From the Concept Art Division
I mentioned Finch earlier and I want to add that it's a good, quiet, small movie, that's not based on any existing IP. It's the kind of film I want more of. It's a pos-apocalytic survival film with a cast of three: Robot scientist Finch, and his robot creation, and his dog.
Concept artist David Levy did the design for the robot, and I really love it. There's a TON of images here: LINK
David's Website: LINK
Instagram: LINK
-Jake
From the Short Film Division
This fan-made samurai short film, titled ZVP (abbreviated from Zatoichi vs Predator, which I assume wasn't used for copyright reasons) clashes together the samurai and sci-fi genre.
In feudal Japan, blind Swordsman Zatoichi comes to the aid of a noblewoman carrying a secret treasure, and must fight cyborg ninjas and a powerful and mysterious Samurai.
From Junya Okabe the creator: "This is a fictitious sci-fi film trailer produced as a nonprofit fan movie, based on a Japanese historical film, or jidaigeki, which does not actually exist. Please enjoy watching it."
According to the date on the youtube video this was posted five years ago. FIVE. YEARS. How come I'm only NOW seeing this sublime masterwork of camp meets cool? I feel like some friend somewhere let me down, by seeing this and not telling me about it.
Watch the short film here: LINK
Some behind the scenes stuff here: LINK and LINK
-Jake
From the Making Comics Division
My sales pitch for Kepler's Intergalactic Guide to Spaceships was that it's "Part Comic, Part Art book, ALL spaceships."
In order to deliver on the comic part of that promise, this week I've been focusing on getting the comic pages done for the book. I've also added a section all about the technology that makes spaceships work in the JP universe. Having so much fun watching this book come together!
If you want to see more of these comic pages as I post them, as well as the rest of the making of the book, I'm posting regular updates on my patreon.
-Jake
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
I've been pondering this thought from Photographer and writer Craig Mod as I make this Spaceship book:
“It’s easy to be seduced by the world of potentiality. A book is always greatest before it’s written. You are intoxicated by what it can be. That’s very dangerous. You want to kill those seductions as quickly as possible, and one way to achieve that is fast iteration. Make known the unknown; murder your fantasies.”
- Craig Mod
He speaks the truth. At some point you have to make your vision a reality, and that's when you realize where all the holes are. The point here is that you can get really frustrated when reality doesn't live up to expectations. The key is to make a minimum viable version of it, and then build out from there.
Don't lose sight of that original vision though!
I let the vision guide me, but I don't let it derail me.
-Jake
From the Office of Wheels
I'm in love with this little ride inspired by the Boulder Mobile from Wacky Races.
Japanese auto enthusiast Takamasa Segi bought a Ferves Ranger and converted it into this. Ferves was an Italian car manufacturer that made these tiny automoblies as an off-road alternative to the Fiats.
Farmers would buy them because they were easy to make tight turns on moutain roads and trails.
More pictures and info here: LINK
And here: LINK
-Jake
From the Illustrators Division
What if Star Wars was an early 80's anime for kids? Gop Gap's vision for that is absolutely perfect.
Gop Gap is a visual development artist working out of Thailand. They do some incredible character work, but also capture moments so well. Lighting and color is on point.
Check out the links below, there is A TON more work with Star Wars, Pokemon, Marvel, and Dragon Ball.
Artstation: LINK
Instagram: LINK
If you like this, also check out this post from way back: LINK
-Jake
From the Film and Animation Division
483 weeks ago I posted a little drawing of a robot on instagram. That's almost 10 years ago! It got 747 likes. I didn't think much of it, and moved on.
Five years ago, CG animator and modeler Kiel Figgins ask for permission to make a rigged model of it and sells it in his shop. (I get a fair kickback of every sale)
This year, Lead Animator at The Mill, James Brown made an adorable PRO LEVEL animated short with the robot called "Love is a Dangerous Game."
The internet really is a tool for connection and collaboration. I love that this happened, and it's a testament to just throwing stuff out there and being willing to let people roll with it.
-Jake
From the Drawings Unit
Here's a bunch more spaceships I've been cleaning up and coloring for the book. A rough layout is finished for the book so now I'm going in and polishing each spread.
As I was making this image I had all the spaceships overlapped and I thought it looked kind of cool:
I call it a "Spaceship Melange." This spacetime quantum anomaly used to happen a lot around super massive black holes until the invention and installation of gravitational vector alternators on most star ships.
-Jake
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
Today a friend of mine shared with me this this tweet by author Brad Stulberg:
A big misconception is that you need to be motivated to get rolling.
You don't.
Research: Motivation often FOLLOWS action, not the other way around.
In Practice: You don't need to feel good to get going; you need to get going to give yourself a chance at feeling good.
So the question is how do you get going in the first place? Might I suggest the 5 minute trick: Tell yourself you're only going to do something for 5 minutes. This is a little prank you're playing on your brain.
You might even set a timer to really sell the idea to the brain that it's just going to be short and painless. One little hack that I like to do is start a work playlist that I ONLY listen to when I'm doing focused work. I'll tell myself I'll just work until the end of the first song.
What happens is that somewhere around minute 3 or 4 your brain gets absorbed into the work and now the motivation kicks in. Thirty minutes later your brain realizes what you did, but it can't get that mad at you because you're accomplishing something and feeling good about it.
-Jake
