Nathan

New Art Style: Pencil-digital Blend

I am excited to announce a new direction for my artwork. I have a fresh artistic style consisting of hand-drawn pencil on paper with some digital enhancements. It blends the rough, sketchy look of pencil I love so much with the clean visual impact of digital processes.

I have been illustrating my own stories with delightful results, and I look forward to offering this style for commercial projects as well.

If you are interested in having your project illustrated in this style, please reach out to me via email or Upwork. You can see example illustrations on the Artwork page.

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Geologic Illustration

Following the client’s brief I created a coloured geologic illustration of the earth’s crust at the Southwestern Oregon coast including tectonic plates, the ocean floor, land topography, and magma flow. I had a blast learning about volcanoes and associated land formations.

Have you ever seen an underwater volcano erupting? Both terrifying and mesmerising. Check it out!

Geologic Illustration of Southwestern Oregon Coast by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Oct 2024

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Work. Play. Death. Rest.

“Work. Play. Death. Rest.” by Nathan Parkinson, May 2024

What is life? A gift. A joy. A tumult of trauma and emotions, desires and disappointments. A longing. An empty lock awaiting the key to set it free. Work. Play. Rest. Death. Another soul for company. The young seek out a mate. The aged filled with bitter experience have lost touch with soul feeling. What is life? A vapour that cannot last the morning. This moment. Work. Play. Rest. Death. A sunny day. The moon. The rain. Laughter. Pain. What is life? A place to stay a while before it’s time to go. What is life? A fleeting touch. A dear embrace. A cold embrace. A buried face. Ticking time. Toil and grace. Distant strangers passing by. Standing near, ones so dear. Reach into the stream of souls and pull the lost ones home. Strangers, friends in disguise. What is life? Work and play. Rest and death. Kindness shown at every turn. Empty hearts. Filled with love. Filled with pain. Longing to be filled by God. Warmed by some great glory. What is life? Wondering. Wandering. Seeking peace. Find unrest. Asking questions. Wanting more. Needing less. What is life? No answer found in life itself. Come and go. Toss and turn. An empire rises, soon to roll over into its grave. Tyrants. Saints. Fools. Sages. All is vain and fleeting. But what is life? Why is this question never satisfied? Work and play. Night and day. Rest and death. Songs of robins in the nest. Dew wet grass. Flowers. Fields. Seeds to bring tomorrow. Reflections. Friends long gone. New ones waiting to be found. One life falls. One will rise. To keep the rhythm set by time. Work. Play. Death. Rest. Loosed from life, at last I’m free to meet my Lord. Eternity. From life to life I’ve passed into the purpose planned for me. Shining sons and daughters stand. Glory wrapped. Gleaming band. We who love the Saviour welcomed near in His embrace. Forever joy. Forever bliss. Free from sin and death and pain and free at last from longing. Hope has come. Here to stay. Here at last eternal day. The hope of nations is our God. Only God. Gracious God. Made a way to save our souls and still remain all holy. What is life? This is life. The second life. The lasting life. Where death has now been laid to rest, and all our work is play. What is life? It’s all these things. The journey to eternity.

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Fundamentals of Art

If you’ve spent much time in the art world, you’ve probably heard of “the fundamentals” and how important they are. Over the years I have studied how making art actually works and how to accurately define the many components. “Why is this useful?” By breaking a skill into its individual parts, you can practice each one more intentionally. Trying to learn everything at once or with a vague focus can make it harder to recognize your progress. For someone trying to master their craft, having a solid comprehension of the tools available is important.

The result of my efforts is the Fundamentals of Art document that I am now offering for free download on my Subscribe page. You can get your copy now.

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Victory Bunny

A client commissioned me to create a victory illustration to be shown when a player wins a solitaire card game. Bonus points if you can find all the hidden suits 😀 ♦ ♣ ♥ ♠.

Victory Bunny by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Jun 2024

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The Astounding Work of Nicholas Rougeux: Data Artist

Artists, scholars, naturalists . . . prepare to drool. Nicholas Rougeux – expert data visualizer – has taken the incredible works of historical artists and made them effortlessly accessible in an online format. Below I have highlighted his projects that have most captured my fascination.

ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOPÆDIA of SCIENCE, LITERATURE, and ART

Discover a vast array of knowledge from 1851 spanning Zoology, Military Sciences, Architecture, Mathematics, and so much more, beautifully depicted by over 13,000 illustrations. The image quality is exquisite and the web-friendly formatting has interwoven the text with the pictures for seamless referencing.

British & Exotic Mineralogy

You’ve probably never experienced rocks in this way before. Artistically arranged by colour this collection of high-resolution illustrations makes my mouth water: highly educational and inspirational.

ILLUSTRATIONS of the NATURAL ORDERS of PLANTS

Soak in 160 beautiful illustrations of a wide variety of plants, ordered and interconnected in a gorgeous collection.

Humming-Birds

Nicholas presents John Gould’s 537 species of humming-bird illustrations in mesmerising swarms of lively colour. Prepare to get lost in the intricate details of these delicate beauties.

Mathematical Instruments

This is a smaller project, but still beautiful and stimulating, especially the posters. I love looking at each of the instruments in their groups. I’m a sucker for gadgets of antiquity.

Please also visit Nicholas’s main website to see more of his mastery: https://www.c82.net/. Each project has comprehensive posters that make great wall art.

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Karl Kopinski’s Thoughts on Photorealism

The skilled artist Karl Kopinski did a livestream with Proko discussing his character design process and answering viewers’ questions. At the end of the stream a very interesting question was addressed, essentially, “At what point as an artist do you stop striving for photorealism and embrace your own style?”

My Summary

  • Part of your development as an artist is recognizing what you do well that makes you unique and interesting, and not always striving for photorealism: your strength might be line quality, lighting, etc.
  • As you gain years of experience, simplify your art and engage the viewer by letting them do some of the work; like style, it’s not something that can be forced or else it looks contrived; it requires confidence in your abilities.
  • You don’t always have to prove you’re amazing at what you do; there’s always someone better than you; tell your story in your way.

Here’s a few pieces of art from Karl’s website.

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Daniel 1: Pulse and Water

This is the fifth and final illustration for the book of Daniel chapter 1 from the Bible.

See the complete collection: Faith in Captivity.

God granted Daniel favour with his master and the boys were served vegetables and water for a ten day test. Appearing fairer and stronger than the others, their diet was changed permanently and they joyfully ate the food of faith.

Pulse and Water by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Mar 2024

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Daniel 1: Meat and Wine

This is the fourth of five illustrations for the book of Daniel chapter 1 from the Bible.

See the complete collection: Faith in Captivity.

The pagan king offered the boys flesh of the fattest beasts, his own choice wine, and the finest dainties Babylon could produce, but Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with these temptations.

Meat and Wine by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Feb 2024

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Daniel 1: Israel’s Captivity

This is the third of five illustrations for the book of Daniel chapter 1 from the Bible.

See the complete collection: Faith in Captivity.

For Israel’s disobedience God allowed their enemies to enslave them. The Babylonians were wicked and did not fear the God of heaven and earth. King Nebuchadnezzar conquered with power and pride.

Israel’s Captivity by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Jan 2024

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Daniel 1: Before the King

This is the second of five illustrations for the book of Daniel chapter 1 from the Bible.

See the complete collection: Faith in Captivity.

After the time of preparation the king asked the boys many difficult questions, and in every area they were found to be ten times wiser than all the king’s counsellors. God had richly blessed their faithful obedience.

Before the King by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Sep 2023

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