abstract

Blue Bard

• Art, Line and Color Academy

First illustration I’ve completed in over a week. I am starting to add more complexity and work over multiple sittings.

I pulled back a bit from the purely abstract pursuit to something that is more-reliable for me, construction-based character illustrations. But once I had the rough composition done, I thought, well, maybe I could do some abstract stuff in the background. I’m pretty happy with the result.

I’d like to create the abstraction with maybe a bit more unifying intention about the theme of what the abstraction should be or perhaps story elements that I can weave into it. This was very much just whatever I drew, but in the future I want to find a way to hone that ability to direct the abstraction and integrate it into the story of the illustration more.

2026 04Apr 14 Blue Bard, nathanparkinson.com
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Flame within

• Art, Line and Color Academy, Nathan's Thoughts

This was an interesting piece for me. It’s one of the first that I’ve completed where I was drawing abstract thumbnails with the intention of it being a weasel. I’m trying to figure out how to harness the compositional, intuitional interest of automatic drawing and doing so with intention.

I don’t absolutely love it, but I feel there’s something here I want to lean into. I am not really sure what was going on with all of the interesting shapes; I was attempting to make something interesting out of them and not have everything be totally random/ugly. I don’t really like that part, but I’m not sure how to improve upon it. I suspect I will get better ideas the more I do it. Overall, I think this piece was a win.

2026 04Apr 01a Flame within, nathanparkinson.com

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AlphaCon

• Art, Art Collections, Line and Color Academy, Nathan's Thoughts

AlphaCon (Alphabet of Concepts) is an abstract illustrated alphabet. Each letter visualizes an abstract concept.

These illustrations are my first steps in developing a new line and colour style of art with Tim McBurnie’s Line and Color Academy. I started with abstract letters because I really enjoy this sort of design, but it also meant I didn’t have to worry about realism yet or things like anatomy and perspective.

Click on the following image to go to the art collection.

AlphaCon nathanparkinson.com 2025 11Nov

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