Hello!

Busy week. However, we are not just staying busy here at the JP Creative International headquarters, but making significant progress on projects.

Which means I've been neglecting my inbox. Thank you for your emails, I've read them, just haven't sat down to respond to them yet.

I've got a few quick questions for you.

Do you use Discord?

I want to start a Discord server that is a place to share interesting things you have found online and in real life with the mission to be:

- a spark for keeping your imagination wild

- a repository for creative bank account deposits

- and a center of accountability for your projects

Would you want to participate in a Discord like that? Let me know what you think.

Ok, got some cool stuff to share with you this weekend. Hope it finds you safe and sound.

Enjoy!

1A) The Star Catcher

From the Art Department in cooperation with the Online Sales Unit

NEW PRINT!

I haven't updated my shop with a new print in well over a year. This is the Star Catcher, a reminder that you can't wait for your dreams to come shooting down to you on the ground. No, you need a lot of rope and the grit to go catch a them yourself.

Each print makes use of archival inks and quality paper stock to stand the test of time.
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Two sizes:
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- 16 x 20
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- 11 x 14
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Signed. Ships in an indestructible fat tube, packaged with love.

ORDER HERE: LINK​

1B) Red Shift Renegades

Massive Comic process update on the Patreon: LINK​

I'm just about done with the first chapter. Should be able to knock out the last two pages today and tomorrow. If you want to see the entire comic so far, plus page-by-page commentary on both the inks and the pencils check out the Patreon.

Join here: LINK​

Also, did an IG livestream with my wife you can watch here: LINK​

2) Cyberdecks

From the Industrial Design Desk

I kind of knew this was a thing, but I didn't know it's REALLY a thing. Cyberdecks are just custom built laptops...which sounds super lame on paper.

These things are anything but that. Cyberdecks are the custom built laptop you would have made in the year 2022 that Ridley Scott envisioned back in the 70's. Built with scraps of other computers, off the shelf components, and 3D printing giving them an intentionally edgy cyberpunk aesthetic.

You can find a bunch of them with instructions for how to build your own at the Cyberdeck Cafe: LINK​

Also, do yourself a favor and just google image search cyberdeck. Check out these gems I found:

3) The Ancient and the Wise

From the Flora and Fauna Unit

Photographer Beth Moon has been documenting the lives of the sacred and ancient Baobab trees of Madagascar since 2006. When she heard that one ancient tree had died she had to return to see it for herself and preserve its death through her photography.

The tree was named Tsitakakoike, meaning “the tree where one cannot hear the cry from the other side." It was about 1400 years old and locals say it was the home of their ancestor's spirits.

She shares her experience in this simply captivating slideshow/video experience: LINK​

4) The Fantastic Imagination of Lucas Roussel

From the Illustrators Division

This guy. It's rare that I find someone I think is making something truly unique. Rousel combines the bizarre with the familiar in such a way that I can't immediately like it, yet I can't stop looking at it. I want to say his style is as if Shaun Tan and Miyazaki's Nausicaa work had a baby.

Just go over to his Art Station profile and spend your afternoon there. Really wish he'd make a book or something.

Art Station: LINK​

Website: LINK​

5) On Maintaining Airspeed

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I started this year with a vision, goals that supported that vision, strategy that supported the goals, a schedule to implement the strategy, and initiated the habits and practices that would help me make this vision a reality.

January went great. By February the screws started coming loose. I got casual with my schedule as other urgent and/or important things popped up. As I drifted from the habits and schedule I formed in January I noticed the work started suffering too.

Then I was reminded of this idea from on of my favorite self-mastery books: Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland

I didn't want to stall completely. I've been there before and to pull out of a stall is not easy. Sometimes it takes months or years! Realizing I was losing altitude (to continue with this metaphor) I needed to realign the rudder and blast the engines to get this project back to a proper airspeed.

The engines of your project aren't your goals or your vision or your strategy, they are your habits.

For me, that's doing creative work in the mornings when I'm sharp, instead of evenings when I'm easily distracted. It's priming my environment (both physical and digital) to make the next action easy. And it's having a bias towards action instead of endless preparing and hedging.

To get back on track this week I focused in on these habits, which got my airspeed up, and made significant progress on the comic in the last several days.

Return to your creative habits...something to consider if your project has stalled.

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

-Jake

My sponsor for this newsletter is…me. It's me, because I'm not accepting sponsors for my email list, and don't plan to any time soon. Really, I'd just like people to buy stuff from my shop. If you like this newsletter, you can support it a few ways:

​Order something from the shop (Best)

​Back a kickstarter when I launch one (Also Best)

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I'd appreciate any of these when you can. Thanks!

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