Pictionary Sketchbook Edition!

From the Special Projects Unit

PICTIONARY SKETCHBOOK X INKTOBER EDITION! A new way to play Pictionary.
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When Pictionary first came out I was a 10-year-old who LOVED to draw, so when I played it for the first time it seemed like a board game designed specifically for me, a kid who was better at expressing myself through art than words.

Ironically, I always made my team lose because I spent too much time drawing overly detailed pictures! And...it's still true to this day, haha. My family always gets frustrated when it's my turn because I can't keep myself from add ing too much detail and running out the clock.
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Now I can’t believe there’s an official Pictionary game with my art all over it!
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It’s available TODAY at MattelCreations.com!
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It was such an honor to work with the skilled team at Mattel to make this thing a reality.

We put together a bunch of artwork I had made over the years for the Inktober challenge and collected them all in a kind of "greatest hits" sketchbook. I even made an entirely new drawing for it (above).

I hope you are able to pick up a copy. I played it with my family and we had a blast. Maybe even too much fun, haha.

Order here: LINK

-Jake

The 10 Greatest Robot Designs in Pop Culture

The following list is what I consider the 10 best robot designs ever. I base this according to 3 factors:

• Aesthetics. Is the design visually appealing?

• Functionality. Is the design mechanically sound, or does it look mechanically sound?

• Cultural significance. Has the design influenced other mech designs, or pop culture to a significant degree? Or is the design the pinnacle of other mech designs before it?

There's a lot of robots that didn't quite make the cut that I love dearly. What it came down to is how much I felt they exemplified those three criteria. And if any of them scored a little lower in one area I had to sideline them for a better robot. With that, let's get to the list, starting with number 10!

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10) Johnny 5

Designed by Syd Mead this was the first truly functional looking robot I remember seeing as a kid, and not just some guy in a suit. He's so iconic, Pixar couldn't help but make a smaller, cuter version for their Wall-e design.

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9) The Iron Giant

I love this design because it takes all of the robot designs from the golden age of Sci-fi and makes a perfect symbol of them all. Plus it's incredible how much expression and character they were able to achieve with so few moving parts.

The Iron Giant was designed by filmmaker Joe Johnston, which was refined by production designer Mark Whiting and Steve Markowski, head animator for the Giant.

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8) District 9 Exosuit

I love this design because it's got alien vibes, but made with familiar looking technology, though it's weapon systems are anything but terrestrial.

Designed for the District 9 movie by Weta Designer Greg Broadmore.

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7) Eva Unit 01

Designed by Ikuto Yamashita this thing wrinkled my brain when I first saw it. It was like a perfect evolutionary jump from the Japanese mech designs of the 80s.

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6) Canti from FLCL

Canti's retro futuristic design so aligned with my sensibilities when I first saw FLCL in the early 2000s that I thought, this is the most beautiful robot ever designed. I think he's my favorite of the bunch here...but I couldn't move him farther up the list because he's scores lower on the influential scale.

Not sure who designed him, so I'll credit FLCLs creator: Kazuya Tsurumaki​

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5) AT-ST

Between the AT-AT and the AT-ST I thin this design is just better. We caught a glimpse of it in Empire Strikes Back, but would not get to see it in full action until three years later when Return of the Jedi came out. This is hands down, the best walker robot design ever made.

Designed by ILM and Nilo Rodis Jamero​

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4) K2SO​

Standing on the shoulders of giants, the artists at ILM created a new classic with K2SO. A droid design that I think captures all the essence of previous Star Wars droids, imbues it with some contemporary shapes and proportions, and makes it what I think is the best robot in Star Wars.

Designed by the ILM art Department. Too many contributors to list here.

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3) VF-1 Valkyrie

The VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross/Robotech was Designed by Shōji Kawamori and if this design doesn't reserve him a spot in heaven...then I don't know what to say.

I could write a novel about this design, but I'll just say this: It's a futuristic F-14 that transforms into not one, but two robots.

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2) Voltron

Voltron was my FIRST robot crush. I watched the tv show faithfully. What makes this so awesome is that if it was just a team of FIVE giant robot lions that fought space beasts, I would've been completely satisfied...but no. Those lion bots combine to form a giant humanoid robot WITH a sword.

Perfection.

Designed by Takayuki Masuo, Yoshiro Harada

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1) RX-78-2 Gundam

And this is it, the number one greatest robot design. I'll admit I'm not a huge Gundam Fan, I like it just as much as the next guy...but I can not deny its cultural impact, it's aesthetic appeal, and the care taken to fully flesh out the engineering of these things to the point of building an ACTUAL 1 to 1 size Gundam.

Designed by Kunio Okawara.

That’s my list. Of course, just as important as what was put on the list is why certain robots were left off the list. A few close runners up were Optimus Prime, Cherno Alpha, and the AT-AT. If there’s any that you think definitely should’ve been on this list, let me know which ones and why!

-Jake

On the secret

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

A friend of mine shared this with me recently at just the right time. I've been frustrated that I have to do all this client work along with all of my commitments to SVSlearn to pay the bills. When really I'd love to have the freedom to just clear my plate of all of that to work on a comic book that may or may not make any money.

It was a reminder that working on it an hour at a time may not seem like much, but it's far and away better than it languishing in my imagination while I wait around for a wide open schedule.

I knew this once! I just needed it to smack me in the back of the head again and say "do it!"

(via @dankoe)

-Jake

The Wild Diversity of Marine Worms

From the Flora and Fauna Unit

I found this fascinating collection of worm photographs deep in the depths of Behance. They're taken by Russian photographer Alexander Semenov who specializes in underwater photography.

These things spark my imagination but also give me major creeps. I'm not quite sure if these rainbow skinned freaks will guide me to Valhalla or crawl into my ears and eat my brain. So...they're perfect.

More here: LINK​

Semenov's portfolio: LINK

-Jake​

The World of Calpan

From the Concept Art Division

Over the past year or so I've been watching Chinese VisDev artist Claude Z build up a portfolio of images that flesh out his world of Calpan.

I don't know what the story is, or what he's planning on doing with this, but I just think it's a fascinating peak into what seems like a fully realized world that Claude Z visits from time to time.

I'm anxious for more, and if he's ever able to collect these into a book, I'll be first in line to get one.

See the rest of his work here: LINK

-Jake​

1980's Futuristic Motocycles (Akira)

​From the Department of Wheels

Found this rad write up of iconic two-wheeled rides from the 80's. I'm in this phase now where the stuff that looks futuristic now is so ubiquitous and Artstationy (like a tacticool facade glazed over everything), that when I see actual engineered machines from the pre-digital age there this tangible coolness to them that I want to replicate in my designs.

I love the odd bulges and angles with slick thickline paint jobs. Perfection!

Check out the full article here: LINK

-Jake

Getta Pizza Da Future!

From the Special Projects Unit

I designed a t-shirt for the Robots book campaign. I love a good t-shirt and have made a few over the years, so this isn't my first rodeo. Excited to get this one made and put on my torso.

In my book, Robot Crimes Investigator, Ryder, visits a Papa-Bot's Pizza to get a clue about the case he's on.

So I thought it would be fun to make a t-shirt for the pizza business that builds out the Robots universe a little more.

This shirt is exclusive to the Kickstarter so if you want to add it to your pledge, or back it at the T-Shirt level, you gotta follow the link:

On failing

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Do not let failure stop you from creating.

Instead, what you fail at and how often you fail should be a diagnostic for how much you're growing.

When you succeed at something you are usually blind to what part luck played in it. However, when you fail you can see everything that went wrong from personal shortcomings to bad luck. The key is to turn that failure into a learning experience and to let that inform your next attempt.

I used to think that some day I'd get to the point where every drawing would be perfect, every project would be a home run because I'd have finally mastered the craft, and could just execute all the time.

What I realized 25 years into this career is that you don’t get to a point in life where you are done failing, you just fail in different ways. In fact, I would argue that if you aren’t failing, you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough.

I remember hearing an athlete talk about the "Rule of Thirds," (no, not THAT rule of thirds).

If I remember it right, she said that if you're working on something hard one third of the time it should feel really good and be a blast to do, one third of the time it should be just okay, and one third of the time you should be failing and feeling like you have no business doing this.

That’s how you know you are in the right spot. That’s how you know you’re growing.

If it’s always easy you’re not growing and you aren’t pushing yourself. If it’s always failure you’re pushing yourself way too hard and still aren’t growing.

Find that sweet spot of one third wins, one third okays, and one third fails.

(Found the video of the athlete who talked about the one thirds rule: LINK)

-Jake

Adam Murphy's Tin Tin Indy Mashup

From the Illustrators Division

This is great, because I heard it said that Spielberg's Tin Tin movie is the third best Indy film he's made.

After seeing Adam Murphy's Tin Tin and Indy mash up all I want now is some French publisher to hire him to write and draw an Indiana Jones bandes dessinée.

Murphy is a veteran of the animation world working for all the top studios, so no wonder this looks so pro.

Check out more of his work on Instagram: LINK

-Jake​

Scratch Built to Perfection

From the Office of Scale Models

Arnaud Caubel is a concept artists and scratch model builder based in France. What blows me away is his powerful designs using pretty basic materials. Some of these designs are just card stock, household trash, and glue!

Look through his instagram and Artstation accounts to see the junk he starts out with and the masterpieces they end up as.

Artstation: LINK​

Instagram: LINK

-Jake​

Rafael Sarra's Logo Makeovers

​From the Department of Graphic Design

Portuguese graphic designer, Rafael Sarra asks the question: "What if this ubiquitous logo for a global brand was actually cool?" And then he goes and does something about it. Not only that he gives things logos that I didn't think needed logos, but was foolishly wrong: like Mars, and Tokyo.

Check out a boatload more of designs on his website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

and Behance: LINK​

It was SO hard picking only 5 images!

-Jake

Week TWO of Ryder's Robot Book

From the Special Projects Unit

If you haven't checked it out yet, my new book is on Kickstarter now!

I've been generating a TON of artwork lately for the Kickstarter, and thought I'd do a big art dump today.

Here's the main character of the new book, Ryder. He's a detective who investigates robot crimes. And in the book the case he's dealing with is a real doozy!

Here's the Robot King.

I did a few variants you can see in my instagram post here: LINK.

People liked these two the best. He's part of a series of chess bots that are in the book.

I did a live stream of this drawing on Instagram you can watch here: LINK​

I had a request from a backer to draw Ripley's Power Loader from Aliens. I thought it would be fun to try and draw it from memory. I know it doesn’t look exactly like this, but it was fun to make something that has the vibe. I think I got all the right beats.

And I got MORE requests for drawings of Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space, Gizmo Duck, BD-1 from Jedi Fallen Order, and K2-SO from Rogue One. Again, tried doing all of these from memory.

Lastly, here's a cool sticker I designed for the second stretch goal. Everyone who backs it at the Signature Edition and above will get this if we hit the stretch goal.

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PATREON: I paused an 8 part series on getting a book deal while I wait for some feedback from my agent. In the meantime I'm sharing all my strategies, ideas, and the book building process of my next Kickstarter project: ROBOTS. Including raw numbers and my kickstarter dashboard info.

Patrons are seeing concept art, the process posts, the writing posts, and everything that goes into making these books. Here's the breakdown of how I made a complex cover illustration like this, with multiple characters:

Sign up now: LINK​

The amount of support on my Patreon ebbs and flows, but always hovers around 125-130 people. We are now at 137! So close to my goal of 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​

Ryder's Intergalactic Guide to Robots, Powersuits, and Mechs

From the Special Projects Unit

​NEXT WEEK - I'll be launching my next Kickstarter: a book all about ROBOTS​

After the huge success of the SPACESHIPS book I knew almost immediately my next project had to be a ROBOTS BOOK.

Like the spaceships book, ROBOTS will have a mix of everything:

• Sketches.

• Finished renders.

• Cross sections.

• A bunch of stuff from the drawings books​

• and a comic story threaded through the whole thing

I'd love as many people as possible to back this thing on DAY ONE, and here's why:

Kickstarter will only promote highly successful kickstarters to other people.

If a project is funded a few hours and shows continued growth in the first 24 hours, their algorithm says, "We got ourselves a winner here!" and they use their marketing oomph to get the word out. Why? Because they get 5% of the money that's raised, and it just makes business sense to promote the winners.

They love the extra money, and I love it because for every person who backs the project, Kickstarter matches that by getting someone else to back it.

And every kickstarter brings new people to stories I'm telling through my books and art. Perhaps you're here because you've found me through one of my kickstarters in the past. If so, thanks for sticking around!

Click here to get notified on the launch: LINK​

THANK YOU!

PATREON: I just paused an 8 part series on getting a book deal while I wait for some feedback from my agent. In the meantime I'm sharing all my strategies, ideas, and the book building process of my next Kickstarter project: ROBOTS.

Patrons are seeing concept art, the process posts, the writing posts, and everything that goes into making these books. Here's the breakdown of how I made a complex cover illustration like this, with multiple characters:

Sign up now: LINK​

The amount of support on my Patreon ebbs and flows, but always hovers around 125-130 people. We are now at 138! So close to my goal of 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 boredom

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I just got back from a family vacation that was four days the mountains with no cell service and spotty wi-fi at a main lodge about 150 yards from the cabin we were staying in.

What was interesting about this trip was the stretches of absolutely nothing to do. I found myself feeling something I hadn't felt in a long time: boredom.

I actually relished it, and for a good 30 minutes one day just stared out at the forest.

I didn't try to use the time to think about my next project, or to deconstruct my life and figure out how to improve it. I just sat there.

Eventually the spots of boredom became less novel and I had to get up and do something. The stuff I ended up doing had a lot more flavor to it.

I came home refreshed and ready to rock-and-roll. I also found myself coming up with ideas I hadn't thought to put together before.

I realized that perhaps I need to figure out how to be bored a little more. It reminded me of this image I saw pop up in my feed last month:

(Source: @OzolinsJanis)

And this quote by writer Nicholas Carr nails it:

We don’t like being bored because boredom is the absence of engaging stimulus, but boredom is valuable because it requires us to fill that absence out of our own resources, which is process of discovery, of doors opening.

The pain of boredom is a spur to action, but because it’s pain we’re happy to avoid it. Gadgetry means never having to feel that pain, or that spur. The web expands to fill all boredom. That’s dangerous for everyone, but particularly so for kids, who, without boredom’s spur, may never discover what in themselves or in their surroundings is most deeply engaging to them.

This week instead of instinctively reaching for the phone, hide it from yourself and stare out a window, go for a walk (if it's not 100+ degrees out), or wash the dishes. In other words...get bored.

-Jake

The paper magic of Guy Pradel

From the Illustrators Division

Every once and while you see something that's such a genius idea yet so simple you wonder why you didn't connect the dots yourself.

French artist Guy Pradel didn't do it just once, but twice.

First, with this amazing choose your own adventure folded comic:

And second with this choose your own adventure map:

Pradel is one of those individuals with imagination AND work ethic. It seems like he's always coming out with a new zine, comic project, or some fun paper thing like what I shared above.

Please check out more of his work on his website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Tumblr: LINK​

Twitter: LINK

-Jake

Kiyomi Tanaka's Jaw-Dropping VF-1 Cutaways

From the Office of Cutaways

This is the real deal. This guy knows what he's doing. I'm floored at how perfect these things are. Makes me think that Japanese illustrator Kiyomi Tanaka has some kind of engineering background. According to Anime News Network he's worked on all the major mecha anime from the 80's and 90's as a layout artist. The layout artist is the one that takes the rough storyboards and draws what the background scene is actually going to look like so the painters can just go in there and add color and light. You REALLY have to have some drawing chops to do that job. And this guy has it.

You can see more cutaways (bigger images) and designs on Kiyomi Tanaka's Pixiv page here: LINK

-Jake​

Benoit Tallec's L’Intrépide Cafe Racer: Ooh là là!

​From the Office of Wheels

​Cafe Racer's always catch my eye, whether I see them on the road or online. But this one, a bike aptly named "L’Intrépide" is something really special. Designed by Benoit Tallec as a personal project. Apparently, Tallec wanted to prove that you could take the uninspired design of a late 70's BMW R100RS and make something that would turn heads on the street. Safe to say that he nailed it.

I love its retro futuristic styling, and would love to see this approach applied to something like a star wars speeder bike.

Tons more photos and a nice write up here: LINK​

Benoit Tallec's website: LINK

-Jake​

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

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

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​