Jake Parker's Blog

At the beginning of 2013 I made a list of the things I wanted to get done that year. Here’s a review of the goals and what actually happened:

Deliver the Kickstarter orders: Accomplished!

By March all the Antler Boy orders had gone out and the digital copies were distributed via Comixology. There’s a post about that here.

Draw another children’s book: Accomplished!

In June I delivered the final artwork for The Tooth Fairy Wars. Which is available this July, but you can pre-order now on Amazon. Here’s one of the illustrations from the book:

Draw another short comic story: Accomplished!

In March I delivered the final art for my story Rabbit Island which appears in the comics anthology Explorer: The Lost Islands. Here’s a page from that:

SPACESKULL comics and prints: Partial Completion

I did make a new print for Space Skull, available here.But I didn’t finish any comic stories with the character. Though I did start one. Here’s a couple pages from that:



Put out a new sketch collection: Accomplished!

I did a Kickstarter for DRAWINGS a collection of my sketches and drawings. If you missed the Kickstarter you can still order the book here.



Teach a class at BYU: Accomplished!

I taught Drawing for Animation to some of the finest students at the school. They were a lot of fun and everyone made big strides with their drawing abilities. You can see the class blog here.

Fill up 6 sketchbooks (only did 3 last year): Failed

I only filled up 2.

Overall, pretty good. But so much happened this year that I wasn’t even really planning on. Here’s a few more things that I accomplished that weren’t on my goal list:

Inktober goes viral

Back when I started Inktober in 2009 I had no idea that in 4 years there would be thousands of people participating. On instagram alone there’s over 45,000 posts hashtagged with Inktober!

I also made the official Inktober Facebook Page and set up simple website at Inktober.com.

Inktober Book

I collected my inktober drawings in a book! You can get that here.

Started Teaching Online Classes

I’ve been teaching online classes for The School of Visual Storytelling. Most recently I did a class on the fundamentals of light and shadow and before that a character design class.

WOW…busy year! And that doesn’t include all the freelance work and daily sketching I’ve been doing too.

2014 is already off to a great start. I’ll post up my goals for this year soon. BIG THANKS to everyone who supported me this year by buying stuff in my shop. You guys are helping me make my mortgage payments…for real.

Ever have a problem with a character you’ve been developing for your own comic, children’s book, or video game, and you just can’t get it to look right? Ever feel like your character is too flat, too stiff, or just lifeless? Have you ever wanted to know professional artists approach character design?

I’m doing an all-day character design workshop for SVS next month. It’s going to solve all those character design problems for you. Click here for more info.

Jake Parker, Brandon Jeffords, and Will Terry.

My buddy Brandon Jeffords is an animation industry veteran, who most recently headed up the story department on Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2. An accomplished character designer, he’ll be demonstrating how he goes from idea to final design.

You’ll also learn from Will Terry, illustrator of over 40 children’s books and one of the best teachers I’ve ever come across. I love his teaching style, and I think you will too.

Maybe the best part of this class is the one-on-one teaching time we are offering. One of the best ways to learn is to actually show your work and talk with a pro. If you want some one-on-one online teaching time with me or Will, better hop on fast. Space is limited to 25 spots and it looks like they’re filling up fast.

When: Saturday December 14, 2013 beginning at 8:00am MST (10:00am NYC – 7:00am Cali)

Where: Your bedroom? Your office? The kitchen table? You pick, just make sure you have a solid internet connection and GoToMeeting loaded up on your computer.

Why: Because I subscribe to SVS’s mission statement: to teach, empower, and inspire visual storytellers. I want YOU to be able to live YOUR artistic dreams, and that will only happen if you kill at drawing.

WHY?!!: I just told you. Go take a nap.

Sweet! Glad to have you on board. Here’s the link to sign up and pay admission:

Breathing Life Into Your Character Designs Live

No problem, we are recording the class so you can watch it any time you want. Pre-order the recorded class here:

Breathing Life Into Your Character Designs Recorded

CTN-X is one of my favorite shows. It’s my 4th year going and every year seems to get better and better. If you’re in town this weekend, stop by and say hi. It’d be nice to see you in person!

Inktober is now available as a digital download in my shop. You don’t have to wait for the print version! It looks great on a tablet, the hi-res scans are nice and clean.

Click here to order and download.

Also, there’s still a handful of original art left in my shop. If you want to own an original Inktober here’s your chance.

This is it folks. You can now pre-order Inktober!

At 64 beautifully printed black and white pages, this book collects the thirty-one drawings I did for Inktober and brings together several other drawings from my projects and sketchbooks.

Everything from dinosaurs and robots, to salty old sailors and mad scientists find a home in this book. AND if you want to find out what ever happened to RoyalBot EP-43 and the Queen’s blowfish, the exciting conclusion is immortalized within these inky pages.

PRE-ORDER HERE!

And, lest I forget, here’s the final image from this year’s INKtober.

OK, check back tomorrow for the final INKTOBER!

Also…

I’ve decided to put all these together in a book! I’ll start taking pre-orders on Friday. And am hoping to get them out to you just in time for Christmas. More details to come!

Hi all, sorry for not posting these on here daily. I just couldn’t fit that into my schedule this month.