Emerson Tung's Tankhead

From the Illustrators Division

Kindred spirit and formidable hard surface artist Emerson Tung has just launched his new book: TANKHEAD.

I've been watching Emerosn post these tank mech designs for close to a decasde now and it's exciting to see them collected in a world building book.

You can order the book here: LINK​

Check out the rest of Emerson's work here:

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

Artstation: LINK

-Jake

The Kinetic Ghibli Fan Art of Art Veider

From the Illustrators Division

Art Veider is a St Petersberg based artist who excels in energetic action comic style art. His characters are typically drawn from the waist up in a dynamic pose that exude creative electricity. I've been a fan for years.

Recently he's drawn a trio of Ghibli fan art pieces that I love to death.

You can see more of his work here:

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK

-Jake​

Recent Sketchbook Stuff

From the Drawings Unit

Over the years, as client and personal project needs picked up, I have started to draw less and less in my sketchbook. I used to finish 3 sketchbooks in a year and now they are taking me well over a year to finish.

What I noticed is that when I did have a moment to sit down to draw in my sketchbook I had forgotten how to do it. I had forgotten what a sketchbook was for. It seemed like a waste of time...time that could be spent working on my to-do list. None of my drawings were creative or exciting. They looked forced and unimaginative.

About halfway through this year I realized I hadn't had any NEW ideas. I've been rehashing old ones and executing on past ideas. It dawned on me that my lack of sketchbooking was probably a culprit. I decided to rediscover my sketchbook and recapture its power to be a place of exploration and fun. The drawings above are the first fruits of that.

I'll get more into my sketchbook philosophy in another email, but for now, just wanted to share these drawings.

PATREON: If you want to see ALL the sketches, reference material, and prelim drawings I'm doing that go into the creation of drawings like these, become a patron today.

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 your art's purpose

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I saw a recent IG post from an artist I follow who had been off of instagram for a bit. Essentially, he was off the platform to recalibrate and get back to making art for himself and not for likes and attention. He points to social media as being an unhealthy place for young artists because of the focus on likes as a measure of self-worth, the problem with comparisons, and a false sense of community.

I applaud this artist (Jake Morrison) for taking a life moment to step back and come at his work in a healthier place. Reminds me of this quote:

The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline… but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.

– Glenn Gould (Canadian classical pianist)

Count this as your reminder for the day to stop making art for the algorithm and make art for people, and for you.

The artists I most resonate with aren't instagram artists (though they might post there), they aren't witty on twitter, or youtube click-baters. The artists I love are the one's who I've met in person and/or have spent hours with their work in my hands and mind.

Figure out how you can provide that experience for people and I think you'll lock in a solid following for your work and be happier as a creative person.

-Jake

Alex Braun's Magic Paintbrush

From the Illustrators Division

Wanted to point your attention to a new up-and-comer I found on Twitter, then had the pleasure of meeting briefly at Lightbox: Alex Braun.

It was the gecko archer that initially caught my eye and I had to see more, and BOY was there more. I love the DnD world he's building out, the dinosaurs, the colors and rendering. I think he found a magic paintbrush or something, becasue his work is beautiful. Good stuff. Keep an eye on this guy.

Website: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

Instagram: LINK

-Jake

DWJ's Grungergetic Vader Short Story

From the Comics Division

Possibly my favorite creator from the last 10 years, Chicago based comic artist Daniel Warren Johnson is getting tons of heat (the good kind) right now because of his Transformers book that he's doing for Image/Skybound.

We are just one issue into the Transformers story, and it is dynamite already, like ALL of DWJ's books, but I wanted to direct your attention to a short comic that might have missed your gaze: "Annihilated" from the Darth Vader: Black, White, and Red series that came out earlier this year.

​Felix Comic Art posted the original scans from DWJ's story on Twitter, and it's a great tribute to the greatest villain in Star Wars.

DWJ does artisanal comics which means they look just as good (if not better) as raw scans versus fully colored and printed.

You can see more of Daniel's work on his website: LINK​

Youtube: LINK​

IG: LINK

-Jake​

Expired Mansions​

​From the Architecture Desk

I found this incredible photo album on Flickr of abandoned mansions and castles around Europe. They are the work of photographer Benjamin Wiessner. There's not much online about this guy that I could find in a cursory search, but there's plenty of photos of vacant, decrepit buildings and awe inducing locations attributed to him.

I love urban (and in this case sub-urban) exploration. Creeping through abandoned places, piecing together why these ghost homes were vacated fills my mind with stories and things I want to draw. When I can't do it in person, I live vicariously through people like Wiessner who generously share the wonders they see with us.

Check out 75 more expired mansions in his Flickr album here: LINK

-Jake

Disney Lorcana

From the Special Projects Unit

For the last couple years I've been working on a bunch of Disney illustrations for their new card game Lorcana.

This project has repeatedly taken me out of my comfort zone. To the point that I don't know why I was contacted in the first place. Sometimes, I wondered why I agreed to this job!

As you know, I don't typically paint my art, I just slap cell-shade style color on everything and call it good.

However, I've been learning SO MUCH from looking at everything the other Lorcana artists have made over the last couple years I've been doing these. I've also gotten a lot of great direction from the art directors.

I guess that's why I said yes to this, I wanted to be pushed out of my comfort zone and do work that made me scared.

These are the first 5 that have been revealed and there's more to come!

Disney Locana: LINK

-​

PATREON: If you want to see ALL the sketches, reference material, and prelim drawings I'm doing that go into the creation of drawings like these, become a patron today.

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 content creation

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

You are an artist who makes art, a storyteller who tells stories, NOT a "content creator."

“Content creator neatly accomplishes two things at once: It lets people who make garbage think they’re making art, and tells people who make art that they’re making garbage."

-Jason Bailey

Pulled this quote from this hammer of an opinion piece: LINK​

Also, if you want a comprehensive in depth dive on "content" one of my favorite youtubers went hard on this: LINK

-Jake

The ROBOX BASIC

From the Office of Robots

Cool robot designed by the late Kim Jun Gi and made by 1000Toys. These came out about 5 years ago I believe, but I just found out about them recently. Love the tranformability of them, and the utilitarian design.

More images here: LINK

-Jake

Search for the Eagle's Eye

​From the Illustrators Division

Cool new book alert. I love indie book projects, especially the world building kind that's going on with Search for the Eagle's Eye.

This is by Arizona based artist Tate Parker, who, if the last name wasn't a give away, is my son.

He was in California for a couple years doing missionary work and carried this little sketchbook with him everywhere he went. He'd do drawings in it inspired by what he saw and was doing. The result was this epic adventure of three kids as they search for the Eagle's Eye.

I love how raw and honest the book turned out. Tate's an empathetic Gen Z storyteller that makes me excited for this new generation of creators.

You can pre-order the book here: LINK​

Tate's Instagram: LINK

-Jake

Lost in Somnia

From the Special Projects Unit

Have you ever had a dream where you’re lying comfortably in your bed and then the next moment falling over a city? It’s happened to me a couple times and I always wake up with my heart pounding!
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For this year’s Inktober challenge I’m wanted to try answer the question: what if you don’t wake up from the falling dream? What happens next?!

This is my 15th Inktober challenge, and every time (whether I complete it or not) I get pushed just beyond my ability and comfort, AND I seem to get better at drawing.
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I guess that’s why I keep coming back to it.

With that, here's my first 16 drawings for the year:

Day 1 - DREAM

Day 2 - SPIDERS

Instead of waking up from the dream, the boy’s fall was broken by a loose web stretching between the derelict buildings. It looked as if the city’s inhabitants had vanished years ago. He was not looking forward to meeting its new citizens.

Day 3 - PATH

The boy wriggled free from the webbing, and dove into a hole in the ground to escape the oncoming spiders. The dark tunnel widened and opened up to a lighted path underground.

Day 4 - DODGE

The bikers rode sharp and fast as they dodged around the boy and skidded to a halt. One in front and one in back, these were the first humans he saw since landing in the foreign city. Something about their dead eyes made him more afraid than the spiders.

Day 5 - MAP

Something about the boy demanded protection rather than predation. The bikers knew exatly where to take him.
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Guided by these unlikely saviors, the boy found himself standing before the Underseer in a chamber aglow with surface light. Here, the Underseer, a figure of enigmatic authority, bestowed upon the boy a truth as profound as it was unsettling.
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"Without the map," the Underseer said, "you shall remain forever adrift in this dream world, a ship without a star to steer by."

Day 6 - GOLDEN

The deal was struck with an unspoken weight that hung heavily in the chamber of light.
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"I shall give you the map," the Underseer said, his voice echoing through the chamber like a distant thunder. "But in return, you must retrieve something of great importance to me. In the belly of the Temple of the Golden Sun, lies a sacred artifact—The Star Crystal. Bring it back to me, and you shall have your passage out of this underworld. Your path homeward will be revealed."

Day 7 - DRIP

The chamber was a place of profound stillness, save for the haunting drip of condensation that echoed through the air. As the boy’s fingers closed around the Star Crystal, he felt a shiver of otherworldly power coursing through him. The crystal was cold to the touch, as if it held the very essence of the cosmos within its core.

Day 8 - TOAD

As the boy hurried out of the temple, clutching the Star Crystal tightly, a question nagged at him. Why had the Underseer not retrieved it himself?

Day 9 - BOUNCE

The toad monster's monstrous bulk belied its deceptively swift and nimble nature. Determined to escape its attacks, the boy darted into the labyrinth of the underworld. The toad gave chase, each crushing bounce closing the gap between them with alarming speed.
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I realized after I finished inking that the proportions were off on the boy, so I went in with correction tape and tried to fix it. Still not happy with the pose/proportions. Finished, not perfect, right?

Day 10 - Fortune

Just as the boy felt the monstrous toad's noxious breath and gaping jaws closing in on him, a turn of fortune appeared in the form of a girl swooping in with breathtaking speed on the back of a jet-powered beetle.

Day 11 - WANDER

The Underseer's promise of the map was just a lie laid bare by the danger the boy escaped. She flew him out of the underworld, beyond the fallen city, to wander lands safe from the treachery of the Underseer and his malevolent forces.
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There, the two of them hatched a plan to return the Star Crystal to its rightful place, knowing that it was essential not just for the boy's escape but also for the stability of this dream world itself. In the process the two's hearts became intertwined with a shared sense of purpose and destiny.

Day 12 - SPICY

The boy and the girl observed the strange passage of time, which seemed to move faster and differently in this realm. Days turned into years, and it felt as if they had known each other for a lifetime. The memories of the boy's home, once vivid and urgent, began to fade like a distant, forgotten story.
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The importance of the Star Crystal started to diminish in their eyes. It was tucked away safe on the hidden island where they had carved out a life together.

Day 13 - RISE

Watching the moon rise over the sea the two found a sanctuary in each other's arms that they never wanted to leave. However an unspoken reality lingered in the air. The enemies that had haunted their journey through the dream world were not to be underestimated, and their thirst for power and control would not wane with the passing of time.

Day 14 - CASTLE

As the urgent transmission crackled through the girl's radio, a sense of foreboding gripped the boy and the girl. The call summoned her to the Sky Castle; a place she had vowed never to return to. But her commitment to that old promise dissolved when she learned why she was needed. The voice of her mother was faint but heavy, "The world is collapsing, we need the Star Crystal."

Day 15 - DAGGER

With each strike of her dagger, the girl carved a path through the assailants as the boy shielded the Star Crystal. The crystal, pulsing with an otherworld energy would find safekeeping with the Castle's Monarch. The only question remained was how the Underseer knew to send a wake of Sun Walkers to the Sky Castle first.
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I couldn’t quite get this finished yesterday, so I’m officially behind! Good run though. I think this is the best I’ve done on Inktober in a while.

Day 16 & 17 - ANGEL & DEMON

My plan, as always, is to stay on top of the challenge this year and do all 31 days. If anyone has been following my posts you'll see I've fallen behind this week. Life got in the way and I haven't been able to do it the last 3 days.

I might catch up, or I might have to come back to this later, not sure how I'm going to fit in the time to finish this AND go to Los Angeles next week for Lightbox. We shall see!

-Jake

On the trajectory

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I think the worst thing you can do as an artist is day trade in your creativity. You know, it's where you measure your success by how well you did each day.

Studies have shown that 95% of people who day trade stocks lose money in the long run. They're so focused on day-to-day fluctuations of the market that they lose sight of the bigger picture and don't notice whether their decisions are trending down or up.

The smartest investors are the ones who make consistent deposits in a portfolio of stocks, and then forget about it. Only checking once a quarter, every six months, or annually. If something didn't perform as well as they liked, they make adjustments.

Whether they are up or down on any given day doesn't concern them. It's the trajectory that matters.

It's the same for people who create. By only paying attention to whether you're having a bad day or a good day, a productive day, or a slacker day, you might lose sight of the bigger picture.

Instead, make consistent creative deposits and forget about it. Whether you made something amazing or forgettable today isn't important. What's really matters is that you showed up and did something.

Then, each quarter, six month mark, or annually take stock of your trajectory. Did you finish X amount of projects? Do the drawings you make now look better than the drawings you made last year? Are you landing the jobs that fit your skillset?

Whether they are up or down on any given day shouldn't concern you. It's the trajectory that matters.

-Jake

The Primary Color World of Linzaoyu

From the Illustrators Division

I'm just so charmed by these colorful, dreamlike, and enchanting drawings by Japanese artist Linzaoyu.

I would love to see this in an oversized coffee table book, with some kind of narrative in the margins. Seems like there's way more going on in these images than what the pictures show us.

Very little info about the artist online. They're mostly active on instagram. Check out A LOT more of this kind of thing there: LINK

-Jake​

The Coin Auctioneer

From the Department of Interesting Collections

I've always had a fascination with money design. I would examine all the coins and dollars I could get my hands on as a kid, checking the dates and seeing if a coin was on this earth longer than I had been (which was easier to find the first 20 years of my life as it is now). I loved the artistry on display of the secret symbols, solemn compositions, and ornate carving work. I even designed a few of my own dollar bills once for fun.

To this day I can't hold a coin in my hand without checking the date on it. So when I see coin collections like this I'm just captivated by the history, craftsmanship, and humanity of these little tokens. You can learn just about everything you need to know about a culture or institution by what they put on their coins. Each one of these is a time capsule, revealing a world on it's two sides.

These were all pulled from this one instagram account which is a nice follow if you're into this stuff. Curated by British coin expert Dominic Chorney, you'll get a nice nugget of history and wonder with each post.

See more here: LINK

-Jake​

The Fab Lab

​From the Architecture Desk

The Fab Lab is a maker space and studio office for Roth Architecture located in the Yucatán peninsula. Designed to look like it organically grew out of the jungle, this place looks more like an alien home than an office space.

Tons more photos and info here: LINK​

Roth Architecture specializes in these kinds of buildings. Check out the rest of their projects here: LINK

-Jake​

Dream Quest by Alfred Liu

From the Illustrators Division

Australian artist Alfred Liu is a master of miniature marvels. There's enough detail and story happening in each of his intricate illustrations to fill a book.

Here's his artist's statement:

In the land of dreams, portals open and close leading to different times and places throughout the universe.

Karzelek monks travelling through the east to spread the holy word; the Ixian gate opens; adventurers, creatures and familiars make their way to distant lands. A wise cat rides a donkey helping all those he comes across or playing tricks on them.

As these portals fade, another opens and a mysterious red robed figure beckons you to come in.

RAD.

You can see more of his work over on his website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

And at the Outre Gallery who is hosting a show of his until September 17: LINK

-Jake​

Why Bill Watterson Vanished

From the Comics Division

I found a fascinating read about why Watterson retired, never to return (in a real way) to the medium of comics.

The article was some retread of the story I already know, about how the constant battles with the syndicate he signed on with for creative control and autonomy. However, the article shed some light on a few blind spots for me, specifically what he was like in college and the years in between graduation and CandH. And also the absolute GRIND is was to do Calvin and Hobbes at the level he was doing it for a decade.

I remember when Bill Watterson retired from Calvin and Hobbes. I was 17 or 18 years old and I just KNEW he was cooking up a project that was even better than Calvin and Hobbes to share with the world in a few years.

Well, those years came and went, and for almost 30 years I never quite forgave him for just dipping out (even though he left us with the most wonderful comic strip ever created).

​This article gave me some closure and empathy for the guy. I get it, Bill. Live your life.

Read the whole article here: LINK

-Jake​

Above the Clouds Postman

​From the Film and Animation Division

This is some pre-production art for this rad little short about a couple girls who deliver mail by air.

It's just a 3 minute animation test for a possible anime series. There's not a lot of information online about who made this. It just kind of popped up one day. I really hope they get the funding or whatever they need to flesh this world out some more.

Watch the short here: LINK​

(via @Catsuka)

-Jake

The Dragon and the Robot

From the Special Projects Unit

Drew this dragon and robot last night for the livestream. Took a lot of great questions and talked about what you should focus on in highschool as an artist, reasons you should have a table at a convention. Plus you get to hear my wife's voice as she reacts to the comments section.

You can watch it here: LINK​

🔴Next livestream is this afternoon: LINK

-Jake​