Hello!

Good week here at the JP Creative studios in Arizona. Finished a freelance project and rolling right in to Inktober prep and another TOP SECRET job I can't talk about just yet. It's actually cloudy and not hot today which always get's me fired up to draw.

Got some fun stuff for you today that came in from the departments here at JP Creative International. Enjoy!

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1) Skull Chaser Two Pager

From the Making Comics Division in cooperation with the Office of Cross Sections

This was a lot of fun. I did a two page comic of Skull Chaser in a new book: TRAVERSE - Vehicles from the Outer Rim of Imagination.⁣ 51 artists, 120 pages, a galaxy of worlds to explore.

Published by @designstudiopress and edited by my buddy @lorin.wood.

Available on Amazon: LINK⁣​

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2) Sci-Fi Jousting Helmets

From the Industrial Design Desk of the Concept Art Department

Really liking these helmet designs by Chinese 3D modeler Gian Gian​

I wish he hadn't stopped at the helmets! Would love to see an entire suit and horse mech done this way. Might have to draw it myself.

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3) DIG IT

From the Architecture Desk in partnership with the Office of Book Acquisitions

I've always had a fascination with buildings that are carved out of the ground or built into the earth. Looks like I'm not the only one. Architect Bjarne Mastenbroek has compiled a wealth of photos and plans for such buildings, both well known and obscure. They're all collected in this beefy 1300+ page tome published by fine book maker Taschen.

It comes out in October, and normally I'd just pass on a book like this citing it as way out of my book budget, but after getting the Soviet architecture book by Taschen back in July I find myself flipping through it often because it's just so darn interesting. So...just might have to treat myself to this one after Inktober.

Pre-order the book here: LINK​

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4) Cowbell Tiara

From the Illustrators Division

Japanese artist Taira Akitsu (Cowbell Tiara) has been one of my favorite artists over the last 20 years since I started discovering other artists on the internet. Back in the day people would make these little link banners:

My website used to be called agent44.com and I went by agent44 online.

We'd put these banners on our links page for people to share on their pages. And then every couple of days you'd drill down the banners clicking on each one to see if these artists had updated their website with new art. If it sounds archaic, it's because it was early days of the internet and pre-social media and there wasn't even RSS feeds yet.

I remember Cowbell Tiara's banner as being a delight to click on hoping for a new illustration.

He still has all his old 2000's art posted here on his 2000's website: LINK​

But is active on twitter: LINK​

and Pixiv: LINK​

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5) On Excellence

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

In speaking about creating art Tom Sachs had this to say:

I forget what interview he said this in, I've listened to probably 10 of them recently. But I like where his head is at. When you are creating are you following someone else's standard? Do you know why they have that standard? Perhaps they have different goals, abilities, circumstances, resources (time, money, tools) and are creating to their standard because that is what they are capable of.

Your standards can match other people's standards, sure, but they must be your own, meaning you must have your reasons for doing it. Otherwise you're trapped in a comparison scenario where the experiences, preferences and expectations of others are things you can't control, predict, or set.

*As always, messages from the Inspirational Thought Unit are always something I need to hear. Typing it out helps me unpack the thought, and I share it hoping it can help someone else too.

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

-Jake

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