Art – The Art of Nathan Parkinson

Daniel 1: Before the King

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

The king asked the boys many difficult questions, and in every area they were found to be 10 times wiser than all the king’s wise men. God had richly blessed their faithful obedience.

*Before the King* by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Sep 2023

New Self-portrait

By Nathan / 08/29/2023 / Art, Updates / Leave a Comment

One can cover much ground in four years. Choose a direction and get going.

“The grass isn’t greener on the other side; it’s greener where you water it.” – Sam Ovens

New

*Self-portrait* by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Aug 2023

Old

*Self-portrait* by Nathan Parkinson, Graphite, Sep 2019

Curious Bird

By Nathan / 08/26/2023 / Art / Leave a Comment

Daniel 1: Israel’s Idolatry

By Nathan / 08/23/2023 / Art, Bible Art / Leave a Comment

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

God’s people turned from Him and worshipped idols made from wood and stone, iron and bronze, silver and gold. They worshipped things created instead of the Creator.

*Israel’s Idolatry* by Nathan Parkinson, Digital, Aug 2023

Greg “Craola” Simkins’ Artistic Process

By Nathan / 08/04/2023 / Art, Art Advice, Other Artists / Leave a Comment

The quality of Greg Simkins’ work makes me want to be more diligent (i.e. get focused on making more art and not waste time looking at reference or doing lower-priority things).

“Innovation is saying ‘No’ to 1,000 things.” – Steve Jobs

I aspire to create as freely as Greg does; though, I don’t feel drawn to be so “Dalí” or cryptically symbolic. Watching him paint in video form is awe-inspiring. I found the following conversation on YouTube of him with a couple other artists; he goes into some exciting detail about his creative process; I’ll jump to that spot in the following link:

Shop Talk with Greg Simkins & Tony Curanaj – Moderator Natalia Fabia – Host Trekell Art Supplies

I especially enjoyed the second half of the first hour of this video.

I’d love to show some of his pieces here, but he asks people not to reproduce his work without permission; so while I wait to hear back from him, go check out his website and YouTube channel for more golden art and advice.

Edit: I got permission to feature some of Craola’s art! Thank you to Greg’s team.

Tim Mcburnie’s Strategy For Learning To Draw

By Nathan / 07/29/2023 / Art, Art Advice, Other Artists / Leave a Comment

Learning to draw is an endless journey. I’m always looking to improve my approach and mindset regarding how to learn and produce most efficiently. Tim Mcburnie’s advice on the subject resonated with me, and I love the quality of his art. Watch his video through the following link:

Best Strategy For Learning To Draw? Endless Studies Are Not The Answer… (YouTube)

What I took away

Your need for the art fundamentals depends on what art you want to make. Many current pros just drew a lot without focusing on fundamentals.
Follow an applied fundamentals approach: decide what art you want to make and spend most of your time making it while building your foundational knowledge and skills to support that.
Apply foundational concepts ASAP! Doing endless studies and exercises just helps you get good at exercises. What’s most important is to understand how to integrate/apply the knowledge gained from an exercise or study into your workflow, how you can actually use it to help make art.
Exercises are largely an academic approach; once you understand the techniques/ideas, you can skip doing exercises and apply them directly to your work.

Did I mention I love the quality of his art? 😉