Warning: this post may be too nerdy.

This is not my own stuff and I do not, in any way, claim it as my own.
I am merely posting it because I am an appreciative nerd and am super impressed by the creativity of this undertaking.
Saw it on the web, needed to post it:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleytalong/a-to-z-of-awesomeness-hpz

Also, posts to follow tomorrow which are actually of my own work! Huzzah!



LOVE, Nate

Book: Dresden Files book Three - Jim Butcher
Show: rewatching Anime Legends collection of Outlaw Star
Food: Vanilla yoghurt + granola

nudity and kingfishers

I've always liked pin-ups, especially the classic Elvgren style pulp illustrations. (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1411/1068105289_259f41cc5e.jpg)
Occasionally I give them a try. They're not as refined as Elvgren, of course, but I like trying it out now and then. Micron 01 and 05 + Winsor&Newton watercolor.



The belted kingfisher, native to Seattle Washington, the Pacific Northwest, and most of Northern North America. Winters in the West Indies and North Colombia. Habitat: streams, rivers, ponds, marshes. Size: approx 11 3/4 inches (30 cm).
As regular followers of my artwork might note, I have been trying my hand at more and more birds. Trying to get at least a marginal understanding of anatomy and color and so on. One of the reasons for this undertaking is because I have a tattoo idea I've been wanting to concoct for several years. The only problem is that I feel the need to draw out the original sketches for my tattoos myself. And I'm really picky. Which is good, supposedly, but also means that of the five tattoo ideas I'm bent on, I only have one on my body... so it takes awhile.
This kingfisher will be a tattoo relatively soon. I want it within the next year. It will be a memorial tattoo, of sorts, for my grandmother Ellen. She was one of my favorite people in the entire world. There were kingfishers at her house and there were kingfishers when we sprinkled her ashes. I can't help but think of her when I see them and they have occasionally brought tears to my eyes, even though she has been gone for quite a long time. I miss her still and I will never forget her or stop loving her. I had the idea a few years ago and have been working on it for about two; and I hope to see it through and actually get it put on me. Memorial tattoos can be bad, corny, or just plan weird (i.e. the face or hand print of the dead person), but I love the simplicity and incognito nature of a bird.

Love, Nate

music: Grow Up and Blow Away - Metric
book: Grave Peril - Jim Butcher

bibliophil-odyssey

Being a Blogspot account, I have recently (over the last two months or so) been looking at more and more blogs and art/image/design websites. I am drawn to these more now than ever previously and I'm not sure why. But, I would like to start posting every month, a new blog/site (new to me, at least) which intrigues me.

This first one, I had actually learned about a year ago, was struck with awe and then I promptly misplaced the site name or something like that.

Recently (yesterday) rediscovered, I was glad to see http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/ doing entries about Illuminated scripts and old and awesome bookbinding.
Hope you enjoy.







<3
Nate

p.s. more sketches soon. I am officially moved in and on the lease today! huZZah!

music: The Werewolf Song - The Nextdoor Neighbors
TV: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

word bullets

I love making art. It is one of my top five activities ever. I will not assign it or my other four favorite activities specific numbers, to order them, but know that it is up there and is a big part of my life.
I also love it when people love my art. Especially people I admire or have never met before.
These things are most-likely true for most artists. Of any form. Art is a lot of things. It is not simply drawing, painting, printing, sculpting. It is language, writing, dancing, singing, music, poetry, and among other things, comedy and acting.
It is an interesting thought to love doing something that serves no purpose to people other than making them see something new. I draw, paint, whathaveyou to show people things I imagine or wish or want. I draw my journal when others write.
To get paid to do this kind of work is always a strange feeling. Perhaps I still look at drawing like a past time, like a hobby, like a form of writing. When commissioned I am not "weirded-out" but impressed, I suppose. Art feels like breathing, like writing, like a waking dream, so it is strange to see it as a job. As work. Odd.
On the other hand, I long to make my living doing this art I love. In my mind it feels like it would be easy, but in the deeper bits of my head I feel that getting a full income from this thing that is such a part of me would deaden it. And maybe even weaken my relationship with my artistic self.
This feels like a ramble, but I feel that my art blog is the best place to put this. Not a keeper of journals with lines, I feel this is my nextbestthing.
Art=work?

-Nate

music: All You Need Is Love - The Beatles
book: Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

Meandering images.

Not really in any order, I drew a bunch of birds, some random girls, Kevin (twice, once with a beard and once without a beard!) then I drew a tiger and a monkey and an Ibis at the zoo! The zoo is depressing, but also amazing. I like to go every couple of years just to see animals in real life I would never see otherwise. They just always look so bored and it's sad they're in cages. But it's cool that they're safe and fed and I can see how an Ocelot or a Orangutan move around.
Anywho, I haven't updated sketches in awhile, but that will change. Want to be more diligent about the sketching. Especially after I'm all moved in to the other house. w00.

-Nate <3

p.s. Also, I drew Chewie and he loves lazer guns. I love Chewie. He makes Star Wars awesome.

ComicsDojo!

A three page comic I made at the first meeting of Comics Dojo, a drawing group. Informal and open. I like the idea a lot.
So far made up of Vincent, Sara, Kevin, perhaps Travis, perhaps Leland, and me/I/Nate.
Awesome.

ALSO: Read the top one first, then read the page to the lower right, then the left page. Sorry it's backwards, kind of, I drew it in my left-handed sketchbook.

Ghosts Don't Believe in Us

These are some pages of a three panel comic idea I had back in 2007, when I was living in Olympia Washington.
Found these when I was cleaning out my art boxes for moving.
p.s. I am moving!
Hope you like these. They are silly and old and adorable.

Love,
Nate

p.p.s. more posts/updates to follow tonight. Lots of sketches!

music: Hombre Religioso - Mr. Loco (Nacho Libre OST)
show: Life On Mars (UK) season 2 episode 1