Anything can be a dragon if you're Gomalemo

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From the Illustrators Division

Japanese based creature designer Gomalemo has a gift. Not only does he possess a solid understanding of animal anatomy and physiology across all species, but he can combine those elements and make truly unique and captivating creature designs.

The thing that gets me is the wild combinations. Like, who would've thought to make a reindeer dragon? Yet it really works.

I got one of his books a while back and it's just a delight to flip through every now and then, when I need a little creative boost:

Much more here:

Pixiv: LINK​

X: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Tumblr: LINK​

-Jake

1985 Nissan Com Com

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From the Office of Wheels

How can something 39 years old look so fresh and be so perfect for this moment in time?

Debuted at the 1985 Tokyo Motor Show, the Nissan COM COM concept van was Nissan's answer to another quirky delivery van designed by Mazda. This thing has it all: straigtline styling. GPS. Car Phone. CD changer. But the think I love the most is the sliding front door.

It's a shame it never went to production.

-Jake

Experimental Ball Apartments from the 1980s

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From the Architecture Desk

Back in the early 80s an artist and sculptor had an idea for an experimental settlement of extraterrestrial looking buildings, and somehow convinced some investors to get the money to build it.

That visionary was Dutch artist, Dries Kreijkamp, and his masterpiece was something he called the "bolwoningen." Bolwoningen roughly translates to "ball apartment" which is fitting because Kreijkamp recognized the shape of a sphere as the most organic and natural form in nature.

As something of a sphere artist myself (see half my robot designs above) I love these quirky little abodes.

More photos here: LINK LINK LINK​

-Jake

Robot Round Up

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From the Drawings Unit

Here's most of the landscape robot illustrations I did for the robots book.

The great thing about books is landscape images look amazing in them. The thing that stinks about social media is landscape images look small and insignificant.

I find myself being drawn more and more to art books, like I used to be before I got my phone. You just can't replicate the experience on a glass screen.

This book is out now digitally. Available here: LINK​

I'll have print copies available in July!

Special thanks to Tate Parker and Anderson Carman for helping me out with colors on these.

Get my 8 book bundle for $60: LINK

I'm posting my process for all my art on the patreon. If you'd love getting more behind the scenes content and learn a little more how I approach creativity, project management, and business strategies I post over there at least one a week. Consider signing up!

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

On quality coming from quantity

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

A couple weeks ago the New York Times Magazine published a long article about Matt Farley. Farley is a musician most notable for releasing over 24,000 songs. He's written a song about almost every situation (highlighting something interesting in a book), every notable thing in pop culture (Used to be a Pizza Hut), and stuff I'd never think of. (Poop in a Wormhole). Say what you will about the quality of most of those 24,000 songs, the man is unconventional yet dedicated to being prolific.

The article is a fascinating read about one artist earning a living by cracking the algorithm through a relentless pursuit of quantity, challenging society on what exactly is artistic expression, and making a massive amount of work in the process.

One thing he said in the article stuck out to me:

“If you reject your own ideas, then the part of the brain that comes up with ideas is going to stop,” he said. “You just do it and do it and do it, and you sort it out later.”

Maybe the thing holding a lot of us bck is we reject ideas we have before they even have a chance of succeeding? Maybe we could take a page out of Matt Farley's book and just create what our brains come up with, and sort out what's actually good and bad later.

Read the full article here: LINK

-Jake

Javier Senosiain Aguilar Casa Orgánica

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From the Architecture Desk

Casa Orgánica, a concept house by Mexican architect Javier Senosiain somehow looks cozy, prehistoric, and futuristic all at the same time. For the homewner who's always saying, "Pshhhh, who needs straight lines?!"

Senosiain says the house was inspired by the shape of a peanut shell: "two roomy oval spaces with a lot of light, connected by a low, narrow, dimly lit passageway."

It doesn't just look super interesting, it actually is psychologically functional: "he idea for this proposal was based on the elemental functions required by man: a place to live and fellowship with others, which would include a living room, dining room, and kitchen, and another place for sleeping, with a dressing room and bath. The original concept is embodied in two large spaces: diurnal and nocturnal."

More photos and info here: LINK

-Jake

Electric Porsche Dakar Racer Concept

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From the Office of Wheels

Industrial designer Kamil Kozik's electric off-road Porsche looks rad. It's got all the right angles and curves to just barely convince your brain it's a Porsche, but then it infuses all the engineering aesthetics expected from an off-road rally racer. All of this packaged up in a nice render. Very cool.

More of Kozik's work in Instagram here: LINK​

-Jake

Rarely Seen Unhinged Cover Illustrations by Noriyoshi Ohrai

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From the Comics Division

I fell in love with Noryioshi Ohrai's art back in the 80's when I would see some of his movie poster art hanging up at the theater. Though I didn't know who the artist was, his art stuck with me. Then in the 2000s someone had found and posted a bunch of his Star Wars and Godzilla art online and I finally put the two together.

Recently I stumbled on several comic covers he did of Demon Lord Dante for Weekly Bokura Magazine and they are exciting. I love the wild swings Japanese creators have taken over the years. You never know what's going to take off and I feel like most publishers these days take the safest bet by just publishing nostalgic remakes.

The weekly manga anthologies published in Japan seems to be the solution. Print a bunch of different stories each week, see whatpeople like, and eliminate the ones people don't.

Anyway, back to Ohrai's covers here...not much else to say other than I'm picking up what he's putting down here.

More cover art from Weekly Borurka Magazine collected here: LINK​

I particularly like this one too:

Robots, Robots, Robots

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From the Drawings Unit

Last Friday I delivered the last 9 pages of the comic to my colorist, and wrapped up the art duties on the book!

I'm So happy with how it's looking. I sent the pages off to a few friends of mine who make comics and the feedback I'm getting is that it's my best work yet. 🙏

To celebrate, here's a hot plate of new robots to feast your eyes on:

Get a front row seat of the ROBOTS book creation on Patreon: LINK​

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PATREON:

I'm posting my process for all my art on the patreon. If you'd love getting more behind the scenes content and learn a little more how I approach creativiy, project management, and business strategies I post over there at least one a week. Consider signing up!

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

On turning followers into fans

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Just like last time, installment for the Inspirational Thought Unit this week is A VIDEO!

This video is further development of the ideas presented in the last video Creating Connection, NOT Content. The idea is that in order to make real fans you can't just be posting on social media, no, you need to make something authentic tangible and share it with people.

Watch the video here: LINK​

-Jake

The Artistic Alchemy of Joy Ang

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From the Illustrators Division

I've been following Joy Ang's work for over a decade, when I first saw her cover illustration for The Anthology Project:

Since then she's become known worldwide for her distinctive and captivating style, particularly in the realm of illustration and character design.

Ang's art often exudes a sense of whimsy and playfulness. Her characters, whether they are humans, animals, or fantastical creatures, often have lively expressions and dynamic poses. I love it.

She doesn't post often, but when she does she always suprises me with where she takes things next. recently she posted these character designs for a personal project she's cooking up:

Really curious wha this is all about.

I'm not sure what alchemy she's using to make her art, but it sure is magical.

You can see much more of her work here:

Website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter/X: LINK

-Jake​

The Cassette Futurism Design Aesthetic of Early Commercial Computers

From the Industrial Design Desk

I found this website called Technikum 29 Living Museum devoted to an actual private science museum in Germany. The museum focuses on computer history between the 1920s and 1980s. What's really cool is that they strive to present every single device in an operational state.

You can see the museum's growing collection here: LINK​

I love the mid to late century design of these devices, with all their buttons and knobs. It's the inspiration for one of my favorite aesthetics in film and comics: Cassette Futurism:

Did this 1946 French comic inspire Miyazaki's films?

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From the Comics Division

Cornebuse et Cie is a French comic written and drawn by Sabran Guy. I don't read French but from what I can tell from the illustrations this is a story about a couple of boys who design their own airplane and then go off on a world wide adventure complete with racist stereotypes that were typical of the time period (not shown).

That unfortunate bit aside, there's a lot of imagination and artistry in this book holds up. It leads me to wonder if a young Miyazaki somehow got his hands on a copy of this and had it percolating in the back of his mind when he came up with Porco Rosso, The Wind Rises, or Castle in the Sky.

You can see the rest here: LINK

-Jake

Robot Technology

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From the Drawings Unit

Been working on the Robot technology section of the ROBOTS book and I love how these are coming together.

This is just a taste of what's in the book! I'm pretty excited about how it's all coming together. More sneak peeks to come!

See the rest of the Robots Technology Section on Patreon: LINK​

-Jake

On Creating Connection, Not Content

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

My installment for the Inspirational thought Unit this week is A VIDEO!

My thesis for this video is that if you want to break through the noise of social media you need to be making things people must experience off of social media to provide a more genuine connection.

I have a lot more to say on this topic, so expect more videos.

-Jake

The Designs of these Retro Racing Helmets

From the Industrial Design Desk

I've been collecting these as reference for a project that may never see the light of day. Figured I'd share these with you. One of the aesthetics I love more than anything is utilitarian industrial design with a focus on just getting the job done, and that being a canvas for striking color and graphic design meant purely for cosmetic reasons.

These helmets are all of that and I love them for it.

-Jake

Russian Space Junk Scavengers

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From the Department of Space Exploration

There's this cluster of ten villages in remote northwest Russia where space debris falls from the sky. I just found out about this and thought it was so cool. They scavenge it for materials to either repurpose the material (like building a reindeer skin lined sled made out of titanium alloy sheets from rocket boosters) or cut it up and sell to buyers.

This is so niche post-apocalyptic-core I thought these were AI images at first. But I found several articles from 6 or 7 years ago that tell the story of these people. You can read those here: LINK and LINK​

It’s not all fun and games though. Apparently, with space debris you get fuel toxins in your soil and water and a lot of these communities suffer from strange medical conditions. The Russian gov denies it's from their spent rockets. *eye-roll*

I think this is some solid inspiration for a cool sci-fi story. It practically writes itself.

-Jake

On making magic

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Last week a friend of mine was writing a screenplay and having a rough day with it. He barely made a dent in it all day. Some days the sun rises and sets and the only progress you've made on your project was just thinking about it. We lamented to each other about how hard it is to be creative sometimes.

Then I said this to him:

"You know this already, but creating something from nothing is legit magic and writers have to do it everyday. So don’t feel bad that it’s actually hard some days."

I extend that same message to anyone who creates, not just writers.

The greatest event in history was when space, time, and matter all exploded onto the scene from nothing. Scientists are still trying to unlock that mystery and, as far as our instruments can detect, it's only happened once.

But in a way, it also happens every time you sit down to the drawing board and conjure up something where there was nothing.

Don't feel bad if it's actually hard some days.

-Jake