Issue 155

Hello!

September is just screaming by me for some reason. I thought we just stared this month, like yesterday. But that's cool because October is coming and that means we get to watch Over the Garden Wall over and over and eat pumpkin spice everything here in the Parker home.

Oh! Also, I'm planning on attending Light Box in a few weeks. Not getting a table or anything, but will be walking around soaking in all the creativity. If you're going, we should meet up or something! Let me know.

Alright, here's 5 things I thought you'd find interesting this weekend.

Enjoy!

1) Sublight Engines and Jumpgates

From the Art Department

Here's two pages from the book I finished this week. I uploaded a 20+ page preview of the Spaceships Book to the Patreon and privately to Kickstarter backers.

I'm grinding on this thing day and night trying to get it to the printers by the end of the month. The more I work on it, the more I've been improving and expanding the original scope of the book. It's WAAAY better than the book I originally pitched to you.

So far this week I've written about 4000 words to fill in descriptions of each ship. Still more to go, but I feel like the end is in sight now. I've got about 6 more comic pages that need to be inked and colored. Then a final editorial pass, and file prep and I'll be sending the files to the printer!

You can see all the behind the scenes stuff and more in the creation of this book, including secret stuff I can't share publicly over on the Patreon.

2) Tangled Objects

From the Arts and Culture Unit

These art installations by Canadian artist Michael A Robinson give off a transdimensional vibe. At first glance they look like elaborate communications satellites or strange fusion devices. Further inspection reveal they're just ordinary objects arranged in such a way that they look like they're being held together by some invisible singularity of gravity. Makes me look at the ordinary objects around my house a little differently.

More here: LINK​

3) The Bloomhouse

From the Architecture Desk

Found a cool house in located in the hills of West Austin. This was a collaboration between two friends in the 70's: Dalton Bloom and Charles Harker who wanted to build a house that was not only unique, but was eco friendly, and would stand the test of time. 50 years later the Bloomhouse is still standing, and now YOU can stay the night there.

You know I love this kind of stuff. This thing looks like it grew out of the ground made up of equal parts fungus and elf magic.

Better photos and history here: LINK​

4) A Little dwarf and her dragon family

From the Concept Art Division

I wish I could tell you that these are stills from a new animated fantasy film about a little dwarf and her dragon family. But it's just a concept done by Vietnamese artist Ngan Pham for the Artstation's latest art challenge Dragon's Rise. It's the second highest rated submission in the Keyframe Design section.

It's Ghibli meets Tolkien and I'd love to see this developed further.

See more of Ngan Pham's work:

Artstation: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

5) On discouragement

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I got into a discussion with a friend about getting discouraged with your work, especially when you see other people succeed at the thing you're trying to do. I feel utterly compelled to make things. I can't get halfway through a project without fantasizing about the next thing I want to make. But at the same time, I look at what I'm making and it never completely lives up to my vision, even more so, it's never quite as good as the art my favorite artists have made.

My brain: I’m going to get you so excited to work on something you will forget to eat.

Also my brain: I’m going to tell you you’re no good at what you’re doing and should just give up and go do something else forever.

Getting discouraged with your work is natural. Comparing your work to others is natural too. I don't know a person who puts their heart and soul into something that doesn't get discouraged with it at some point. But I think this kind of discouragement is also misplaced. You might feel like your work is everything...but it's just a part of the ecosystem of desires, abilities, privileges, and liabilities that make up you.

So your art isn't living up to your vision...but are you doing your best with the hand you've been dealt? Are you helping others where you can? Are you nurturing relationships with those closest to you? If the answer is, "I'm trying" then you are doing all right.
​
My friend put it succinctly like this:

That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!

-Jake

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