Our community has many talented and skilled Guardians in it, some of those Guardians are artists. Like many other content creators in the community, artists are very special. They create something incredible that they share with the whole community and beyond. Art in our community has grown so much. Each day artists are producing pieces that impress and transport people into the world they have created. Art as it was said best by Thomas Merton " Enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time". Each week we, at DTR (Destiny Tracker), will showcase some works of art created by one of our very talented artists in the Destiny community and learn a little about them. This week we have a very special Guardian joining us in the spotlight, Jake Myler. He discovered his creativity with art at an early age, before finding his way into the Destiny universe, which later became a passion, " As early as I could remember! I didn't get serious about doing art for a job till I was almost out of high school though. I just didn't realize something like that could be possible", added Jake Myler aka Watermelon Exo. Jake Myler has been playing Destiny since a month after its' release in 2014, " I started playing Destiny maybe a month after it was released. But for the first 5 months I was taking it at a really slow pace, maybe doing a story mission every week. Kinda makes me sad since I had no idea there was a special event happening at that time with the queens wrath and missed a few special items". Jake Myler began his Destiny journey with his Exo counter part which later became a community favorite character with the likes of Cayde-6. I asked what drew him to the Exo in Destiny and how Watermelon Exo came to be, Jake replied, " I saw the character options, and the Exo was a no brainer! They looked so amazing. So I picked the most friendly robot face I could and the rest is history!. A little bit after while playing the game I kept drawing my own character and putting him on the internet. I kept getting good feedback. Then I drew a few comic pages and quickly things took off. I had people in Russia asking me if they could translate it, I had Cozmo asking if he could feature me on Bungie.net. I just kept the ball rolling because as I drew more comic pages I wanted to see where this characters story would go and it was a lot of fun making a sort of side-story to the main Destiny plotline".
The Watermelon Exo character and web comics are a community favorite, having gained more and more fans over time. The comics have beautiful art work in each page, a humorous fun loving tone, and a continuous story evolving within the Destiny universe. I asked what his favorite thing about Watermelon Exo is, " For me its surprising people (and myself sometimes), where his story takes him", Jake responded in a tone of pure joy for the beloved character. Jake Myler creates these amazing web comics in his spare time. Curiously, I asked Jake what he does for day job when he is not creating more pages of the comic for everyone to enjoy and how he finds time to create new pieces, Jake responded, "I do background concepts for casual games! But ends up being a lot of organizing files, and making sure things are named correctly in databases and coding and telling other people what to draw. So I come home and immediately get started on drawing most days on my own stuff! It's not that much time, (which is why I can only manage about 1 page of comic a week)!". The amount of passion Jake has for creating art and his web comics, when he's not exploring the worlds or crucible in Destiny in his spare time, is inspiring. I asked what his favorite medium to work with while creating new pieces is," I guess using ink and brush is my favorite to play around with and make art, but almost all my stuff I show on the internet like illustrations and comics happens to be created in photoshop with my trusty Cintiq (a big drawing screen)", Jake Myler responded.
Jake has been known to make appearances dressed the Watermelon Exo for past Guardian Cons, PAX, and other conventions to greet fans and other Guardians as well as to sell some of his incredible artwork prints and even sign a few helmets here and there. The most impressive piece of his Watermelon Exo suit he wears is, of course, the custom made Exo full head. I asked who created the helmet for him and how many times has it been modified since it was first made, Jake replied, " The Watermelon Exo helmet was created by Brandon Payne (@BrandoThePayne ) who is a pretty talented Fabricator! Although I fear it might've been a bigger project then he realized when he started because it basically took 2 years to finish. Perhaps its because every time he was nearing completion of the helmet, he'd want to do a bunch of improvements on it! So he took it back to fix up like 4 times or something. Anyway it's basically the best thing I've ever owned". Jake is a blast to meet in person, with so much energy he really brings the character to life and is a passionate member of the community. We are fortunate to have such an incredible artist and Guardian in the community with us all. Jake has been in and around the community since it first started to come to life back in 2014. He has been a guest on community podcasts and is a host of one now. I asked Jake if he enjoys going onto podcasts interacting with hosts and other guests, he replied, " I almost was a host on the yet-to-air DCA podcast, but we were encountering some technical difficulties so that's on hold for now. As for if I enjoy it? I'd have to answer that with yes and no. I love meeting the hosts of podcasts, most of which Im already a big fan of. Being on Guardian Radio and Destiny Community Podcast I really had to struggle not to fanboy out on them. On the other hand, I'm pretty nervous talking in public, being recorded, small talk and everything that comes with making a podcast. So the day leading up to a recording I'm basically low-key freaking out. But I power through because I don't want to pass up the opportunity to talk with these fine people!". Our community has many parts to it, from content creators to artists, musicians, podcasters, but are all share the same nature of being Guardians. From helping others with a raid or nightfall in Destiny, to doing something more for others with charity and awareness streams, it truly shows the world how incredible Guardians in the community are. Wondering what Jake's favorite part of the community is, he responded with, " Definitely how giving people are. If you need help through a nightfall there are people out there. If you've never been flawless there are people who can help. And if you want to find out how to stream or put on a fundraiser there's people willing and able to help with that! Amazing!". Jake could not be more right, the Destiny community is home of so many selfless Guardians that bring heart to humanity with all of its positive undertakings big or small. From helpings a solo player achieve a milestone in game or by doing countless charity events making a true difference in someone elses life. Being a Guardian means so much more than just a character in a game, that it can not be described by words. As we inch closer to being half way through 2018 I asked Jake if he has any big plans for this year for the community or art wise " My biggest plan is going to Guardian Con! I'll have a table there but I want to have a new issue of Watermelon Exo to sell there as well as a poster and maybe some other surprises. I also want to Cosplay there, so I have to quickly learn how to make some Hunter armor! I may not be able to do all this stuff in the few weeks that are left! Please wish me luck!" Jake replied. Lastly with all the incredible pieces around the community being created by artist collaborating on a single piece, I asked Jake who he would be interested in creating a collab piece with in the community (this can be a hard question with so many talented Guardians in the community) he responded by saying " I'd love to do a collab with Eric Newgard of Impact Props - maybe design a gun that he'd create or paint a gun he modeled. I love his stuff and own one of his finely crafted Thorns!". You can find Jake Myler on Twitter at twitter.com/lazesummerstone and of course you can find his fantastic watermelon exo web comic and stay up to date with all of his adventures at www.watermelonexo.com. Jake also has a scifi/horror/mystery/romance comic called Mosscreek Divide that he updates with new additions at www.mosscreekdivide.com. It was a huge honor having Jake join us this week and was an incredible honor getting to know more about this amazing Guardian in our community, we wish you all the luck in the world and keep doing what your doing. Til next time as always, thank you for reading!.
Shout outs!
Speaking of podcasts I'd like to give a few shout outs to a few that I've been on in the past month! - Jake Hey listen games podcast - which is a general game podcast, very listenable and they have particular interest in Destiny twitter.com/HeyListen_Games Barely a Destiny Show - a really funny and informative Destiny Podcast which at least while I was on was very Destiny focused! I love these guys! twitter.com/BarelyADS Side Quest Sunday - An amazing interview podcast, interviewing a person of interest, often Destiny community members, but ending in a 5 minute D&D session twitter.com/sidequestsunday
"Whether we wanted it or not, we've stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. So let's get to taking out their command, one by one. Valus Ta'aurc. From what I can gather he commands the Siege Dancers from an Imperial Land Tank outside of Rubicon. He's well protected, but with the right team, we can punch through those defenses, take this beast out, and break their grip on Freehold." - Zavala
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