Issue 153

Hello!

First off, there's a new CHILDREN'S BOOK PRO session starting in a couple weeks. If you've ever wanted to have a shot at illustrating picture books professionally this 10 week course will get you up to speed on the current state of the industry and show you how to learn the craft of illustration. This is our 4th time running it and every time people walk away completely astonished at how much practical information is in the lectures.

Sign up for a free preview of it here: LINK​

More info here: LINK​

(Patrons, don't pay for it yet, I have a $50 off code for you I'll be posting on the patron page later today)

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

Enjoy!

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1) He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Coda

From the Art Department

There's no shortage of He-Man shows in the world so this might have gotten lost in all the noise, but the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe show on Netflix has this cool thing they do at the end of each episode: Codas.

These are black and white illustrations mostly done by comic artists that give a sneak peek at the next episode. When executive producer on the show Jeff Matsuda reached out to see if I was interested in doing one, I was not going to say no.

I loved He-Man as a kid and to be able to contribute to the franchise, even in this small way, was something I've always wanted to do.

You can see my drawing at the end of episode SE E4. But while you're there might as well check all the rest out.

Process art from sketch to final over on the Patreon.

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2) Wendelstein 7-X

From the Machines Division

This might be the most complex machine built by humans....actually it was only possible to design with the help of super computers.

From Wikipedia "The Wendelstein 7-X (abbreviated W7-X) reactor is an experimental stellarator built in Greifswald, Germany, by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), and completed in October 2015."

HOPEFULLY this leads to unlocking fusion tech...but I think they might have messed with the spacetime continuum when they flipped it on. things have been a little off since about 2015.

This video does a pretty good job of breaking down what all the different components of this machine are and what they do: LINK​
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Here's an older less flashy, but also very educational video on the stellerator: LINK​

I just think this is the coolest looking thing, man. Endless supply of tech reference going on here for anything you want to design within the realm of sci-fi.

When I look at this next to modern art installations I have a hard time not seeing all this wild engineering as contributing to the art scene just as much as it contributes to science.

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3) "Left" by Shinji Kawamura

From the Film and Animation Division

What if there was a stop-motion carved wood film about a legendary sculptor who made a mechanical arm that he could use to fight bad dudes. That's the vision of director Shinji Kawamura who wants to bring his film "Left" to life.

From the animation tests posted so far this thing looks AMAZING.

Animation test here: LINK​

Hidari gets a flying chainsaw hand: LINK​

Lots more info on the project here: LINK​

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4) The Toys of Sagdas

From the Toy Department

​Sadgas is a 3d modeler/concept designer based in Spain. He makes small runs of designer toys that hits the sweet spot right in the middle of cute and edgey. That's my jam.

Website: LINK​

Behance: LINK​

Insta: LINK​

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5) On finding what works for you

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I was shocked to read about Todd McFarlane's working style this week. Here's how he makes comics:

I think this is absolutely bananas...yet here's a guy who *deep breath* founded the most successful independent comics publishing company, launched a new Spider-Man comic that sold 2.5 million issues, created the character Venom, created Spawn (which is the longest running independent comic book series of all time), and I'm not even going to mention all of his other business ventures.

This is clearly a guy who knows how to ship. He found a way to make comics that worked for his weird brain and just went with it. Yes, his writing has been described as "clumsy, unsophisticated and pretentious." Luckily, his art made up for that shortfall. The thing I want to point out is he didn't let something like not being able to write very well stop him from doing the thing he wanted to do.

I'm not saying you shouldn't master your craft. No, you should always be striving to improve, just make sure perfection isn't stopping you from finishing something.

(image via @michelfiffe)

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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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