Hey, I'm Nathan.
I’ve been drawing and painting for a long time… several decades actually. (Yikes!) I’ve been a professional artist for over 20 years. What is a “professional artist”? My definition is someone who makes a living from designing, drawing or painting in whatever form.
My art career has taken many forms over the years, but one thing that has remained consistent, since childhood, has been drawing and painting. It’s something that I love, and have always come back to. When I first started my career in the early 2000s the emphasis was on digital skills, or how well you knew Photoshop. No one seemed to care about the pencil drawings in my portfolio. But time has passed and not only have I rediscovered my fundamental art skills, I’ve actively worked at improving them. It’s been like reconnecting with an old friend.
My traditional and digital art skills finally merged with the addition of an iPad and pencil a few years ago.
Adding these tools really set in motion the idea of combining the look and feel of traditional art into a digital medium. Since then I have been creating various products like brushes and canvases to bring everything I love about traditional painting to digital. In my mind, there is no difference between the two. Art took on a whole new meaning for me at this point. It wasn’t a job anymore…it was actively working towards a goal of not just getting better, but discovering new ways of working and creating. The results of these efforts are the products, tutorials and courses that you’ll find on this website. All of which I am extremely proud of and use daily in my own work.
I hope that you find these products just as fun and exciting to use in your own work. I believe that they will open up new possibilities and inspire you to paint your best work yet!
Artistic Influences
Every artist has something that inspires them. Something that gets you excited and motivated to work. For me it’s commercial art centered around science fiction and fantasy of the 1970s and 80s. Hand painted artwork for book covers, movie posters and comics of this era is something that I feel connected to. It doesn’t matter what I’m painting I always have reference from this era on hand.
Artists like Drew Struzan, David Grove, Frank Frazetta, Earl Norem, Bob Peak and many others come to mind. This is the artwork that I love to reference. It has a nostalgic appeal to me, and I love the process of painting transparent layers like a lot of these artist did. I’ve learned so much from just staring at paintings from this era, and trying to deconstruct the process. It ignites my creative fuel every time.