In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman sit down with artist Nate Twombly! Nate is a freelance illustrator whose work includes drawings and paintings based on New England, seasonality, camping, sports, music, robots, and sometimes folklore and sci-fi. Nate primarily creates his illustrations digitally these days, but has dabbled with everything from acrylic, watercolor, egg tempera, and pen and ink. His folk art is reminiscent of the work of Grandma Moses and Horace Pippin! Nate, who has been painting and drawing since he was little, actually started in photography and still loves vintage cameras and collecting old photographs! Find Nate’s work online at www.natedraws.com and on Instagram at www.Instagram.com/natedrawss. Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Be friends with us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/CreativeGutsPodcast and Instagram at www.Instagram.com/CreativeGutsPodcast. If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax-deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman sit down with artist Nate Twombly! Nate is a freelance illustrator whose work includes drawings and paintings based on New England, seasonality, camping, sports, music, robots, and sometimes folklore and sci-fi. Nate primarily creates his illustrations digitally these days, but has dabbled with everything from acrylic, watercolor, egg tempera, and pen and ink. His folk art is reminiscent of the work of Grandma Moses and Horace Pippin! Nate, who has been painting and drawing since he was little, actually started in photography and still loves vintage cameras and collecting old photographs!
Find Nate’s work online at www.natedraws.com and on Instagram at www.Instagram.com/natedrawss.
Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Be friends with us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/CreativeGutsPodcast and Instagram at www.Instagram.com/CreativeGutsPodcast.
If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax-deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com.
Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:00] LHL: I'm Laura Harper Lake.
[0:00:01] SW: And I'm Sarah Wrightsman.
[0:00:02] HOSTS: And you're listening to Creative Guts.
[EPISODE]
[0:00:18] SW: Hello, listeners. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Creative Guts.
[0:00:21] LHL: Today we're talking with Nate Twombly, an artist whose unique work often depicts New England, seasonality, and sometimes folklore and sci-fi.
[0:00:31] SW: We're really excited to chat with Nate, so let's jump right into this episode of Creative Guts with Nate Twombly.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:40] LHL: Hi, Nate. Thanks for being on the Creative Guts Podcast.
[0:00:42] NT: You're welcome. Happy to be here.
[0:00:45] LHL: We're so excited to talk with you. How did you find out about us, or how did you first hear about us?
[0:00:50] NT: Actually, on Instagram. I started following in. I started following you guys, and I was actually following this – they are Upfront Street.
[0:00:59] LHL: Oh, nice.
[0:00:59] SW: Oh, that’s funny.
[0:01:00] NT: I saw some of your posts and some of their posts, and then I followed you guys from there.
[0:01:04] LHL: I love that. That's so great. Then you wrote to us and applied, and we were so excited to have you here to dive into your mind and talk about your work and everything. For the listeners that don't know anything about you, will you introduce yourself and tell them a bit about you as a creative? How would you describe yourself?
[0:01:22] NT: How I describe myself. That's a good question. You start off with a good question right away.
[0:01:27] SW: Oh, there's plenty more to come. Don't worry.
[0:01:30] NT: Well, I've been painting and drawing since I was very little. I went to New Hampshire Institute of Art.
[0:01:36] LHL: Oh, okay. Yup.
[0:01:37] NT: It's right down in Manchester. Funny story, so I guess, my career as an artist has changed a lot over the years. When I first started trying to be a creative, I actually started in photography.
[0:01:51] SW: Really?
[0:01:52] NT: Which is funny if you see my work. From there, I decided I was drawing more than I was taking pictures. I got in trouble a lot for that. But then, I decided to switch to illustration, and then I took it off from there and just stuck with illustration. I guess, to describe my artwork is nostalgic, history, and like where's Waldo. I like to hide things in my drawings and paintings. I've always done that. Right now, I'm working digitally, but like I said, I've gone through all different stages. I'm now a digital artist. I haven't been that long. It's been about four years I'm working digitally.
[0:02:40] SW: I love that.
[0:02:41] NT: It’s a journey. It's definitely a journey.
[0:02:45] SW: With working specifically in digital art now, do you ever go back to physical mediums, or is it intentional, or is it about the space and the studio space and that kind of thing?
[0:02:55] NT: It's intentional in the way that I like to work quickly. I also, when I was learning, or developing, I grew, I focused on pen work for a long time on paper. Actually, a lot of my earlier works are just black and white. Color was an afterthought. I always struggled with color being a creative. It wasn't until four years ago, I decided to try digital, because I get the pen. I could work digitally. Now, I think differently. Now, I think color first and then line work second. It's funny.
[0:03:33] LHL: That’s so interesting.
[0:03:33] SW: Super interesting. Especially, because your color palette in your work is so distinct.
[0:03:39] NT: Yeah. Being a visual person too, I liked working digitally. You can see all the colors right there. Before I was working just black and white, I couldn't see the colors. I couldn't decide what to use, so I just threw it on there. I'm actually really evidence of anyone that can paint just straight on campus. I don't know how they do it, but it's amazing. All these paintings in here, I'm just amazed by, because I have to plan everything out and if I don't see the colors I want, it doesn't work for me.
[0:04:10] LHL: That's so interesting.
[0:04:13] NT: Digital has very, kind of opened up my world, so.
[0:04:17] SW: Your illustrative style, the where's Waldo of it all, how has that evolved and developed? Because are there certain inspirations that you are drawn to, that you pull from?
[0:04:29] NT: I think, it probably goes back to being a kid, just having a where's Waldo book was my first inspiration. Trying to find everything is very fun. I always had fun with that. Now, when I show my work to people, I like to quiz them and say, “Do you find the cat in the window in that drawing?” They're like, “Oh, no. I didn't see that cat right there.” I'm like, “Yup. He's up there.” I like that little thing. Then with digital too, you can zoom in and you can put the cat wherever you want, or put the element wherever you want. It's also fun when I go back to drawing on paper, I see myself trying to zoom in. I'm like doing this.
[0:05:07] LHL: Yes. The pinch.
[0:05:08] NT: I’m like, “Oh, what can I? Oh.”
[0:05:09] SW: Then the double tap to go back.
[0:05:10] NT: Yeah. Double tap, go back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[0:05:12] SW: Please delete this line.
[0:05:13] NT: Please delete this line. Now, I struggle with black and white, because I'm like, I can't delete that line. Yeah, if you can't tell, I like the humor, too. A lot of my work, I’m like, when people chuckle, I like that a lot.
[0:05:29] LHL: Well, I definitely chuckled at a lot of the spookier ones, the scallop, the ghosts on the front porch and the – your Halloween work is so great.
[0:05:36] NT: I love Halloween. I love the seasons. I guess, also, my work is more – it’s like about seasons, especially living in New England my whole life. I grew up down the street in Danville, and now I'm in Bedford with my wife and child, who is four. It's fun.
[0:05:53] SW: Have you introduced Where’s Waldo to your four-year-old?
[0:05:55] NT: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Every night, we go through that.
[0:05:59] SW: Oh, I love it.
[0:06:00] NT: Oh, yeah.
[0:06:01] SW: Mine's two and a half, and we just introduced Where is Waldo recently, because my husband acquired a bunch of old Where’s Waldo books from his childhood, and so we’re like, “Let's do some Where’s Waldo.” He's a little bit too young for it, but really enjoys doing it anyway.
[0:06:14] NT: He'll get it. They'll get it. Now, he finds things quicker than I can. He's four now. Yeah, it's fun.
[0:06:22] LHL: Oh, that's so magical. You're diving into a world and there's just so much to see. That's nice.
[0:06:28] NT: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[0:06:30] SW: It's so funny that you brought up seasons. I feel like, as soon as you said that, I was like, “Yeah, that's so true.”
[0:06:36] NT: That's a thing. Yeah. Seasons. That's why I was playing my drawings is what seasons are we in now and what season is coming up. Right now, I'm planning my winter series. What different scenes can I do that are winter themed, especially just struggling with the snow. I love drawing people struggling with snow, because we all go through that.
[0:06:58] LHL: Yes. Oh, my gosh. Yes.
[0:07:02] SW: Oh, it's just so funny, because I'm scrolling through your Instagram right now. There's like, oh, there's snow. This must be in winter. It's like, yup. January 2022.
[0:07:10] NT: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like that I could do it quickly too and just get on the platforms. Then, I also enjoy printing them when they come up printing. Right now, too, I do a lot of craft shows in the area.
[0:07:24] LHL: Oh, yeah. Okay.
[0:07:26] NT: That's been a lot of fun. I enjoy interacting with the public when they look at my booth and they chuckle at the different drawings. Especially when they buy one, it’s just great. It’s a great feeling. I think artists always chasing that too, and someone just likes your drawings is just, yes.
[0:07:45] LHL: Yeah. Then all your creations are in different homes all over the place. It's so nice.
[0:07:49] NT: Oh, yeah.
[0:07:51] LHL: You've mentioned seasons and you mentioned a little bit history and you had mentioned earlier, folklore, when you filled out our form. I'm interested to know a little bit more about the history side and folklore. It makes sense that you're into Halloween, because New England is so spooky and that history vibe of that stuff. If you can share a little bit more about that, I'm fascinated to know about it.
[0:08:14] NT: The folklore, earlier I was doing a lot of the – is Halloween folklore. I looked up some things in New Hampshire that were spooky stories and decided to draw some of those. Then history, I started looking at old photography. A lot of what I referenced in my drawings is the old photography. They look like they're from a different era, but they also look like they could be this era. I think people enjoy that. I think, it's also something romantic about, thinking about, or drawing a perceived simpler time, because it's a simpler time, but history has all its things that make it up. That's my long winded one.
[0:09:06] LHL: I love it. I love that though.
[0:09:11] SW: Yeah, your color palette is so distinct. It's very natural and it feels historical in these classical colors that you've seen in older pieces of art. But then, also, just, I think, the paint that was used on really old colonial houses, it feels that really, really comes through. That's so interesting that your color palette is tying in with the theme in that way.
[0:09:34] NT: Yeah. I draw in shapes, so you can tell. There's a lot of shapes in my drawings, too.
[0:09:40] LHL: Have you ever experimented with a hot Barbie pink, or anything like that? I don't know that I could envision it with the subject matter.
[0:09:46] NT: Yeah. That could be tough.
[0:09:50] LHL: I think the most extreme I'm seeing is the Sanderson sisters and purple.
[0:09:54] NT: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[0:09:55] LHL: I really like that. That's great.
[0:09:59] NT: I have to draw that one.
[0:10:02] SW: It's really fun. Some artists, I think, go through and scrub their old Instagram, but you have not. Anytime I have somebody on the on the podcast, I always like, I scroll all the way back. I'm really deep in your Instagram right now. It's obvious. There's this evolution, like you were doing this and then you were doing this and then you were doing this. It's very cool. It's like an archive.
[0:10:23] LHL: Yes. Yes.
[0:10:26] NT: You can see the stuff on paper and you can see the digital stuff. Yeah.
[0:10:28] SW: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
[0:10:30] NT: It’s all similar, even though digital is you can see it's different, but it all ties back to the same theme and I guess, execution. I try to stay within what I'm comfortable with.
[0:10:45] SW: Yeah. That makes sense. There's some bursts from like, oh, there was a lot of robots going on in this time of your life, but then there's also themes that continue to pop up. I dug deep and there's some baseball stuff that's more recent, some digital stuff. Then there's baseball drawings that are four years ago. I'm like, “Oh, that's cool.”
[0:11:05] LHL: It circled back.
[0:11:06] SW: I've seen a lot of Star Wars way back when. I'm loving that.
[0:11:12] NT: There's one I drew first on paper. It's the end of the first one, when they all gained trophies. They're there. Then I drew again digitally, which was fun.
[0:11:22] LHL: That's so great.
[0:11:22] NT: I actually drew my same drawing twice, but different mediums.
[0:11:27] LHL: Yeah. I love it when artists do that. I feel like, I never have enough guts, I guess, to do it. I don't know. For some reason, sometimes I'm like, “Oh, what if I do worse this time around when the evolution isn't there, or the difference isn't there? Yeah, I'm going way back to as we chat. Yeah, these are 2018. This is a while ago. But I really enjoy your sketchbooks. Your sketchbook pages and I how the motorcyclists, his back wheel is a little bit on the other page. Yeah. I think that the negative space within sketchbooks is utilized really well in this way.
[0:12:03] NT: During that time, I drew a lot in my notebooks, everything was in a notebook. I didn't really expand to any other medium. I was keeping things organized. My iPad has all my digital drawings, and then all my other drawings are on these sketchbooks, which is funny.
[0:12:22] SW: You said that you grew up drawing, and did you know you wanted to do this forever? Or was it more like, in the way that most kids draw as a kid and then you stopped drawing at some point?
[0:12:33] NT: I think it was, definitely as a kid, my parents are very supportive of me drawing and painting. I think every artist might have a memory similar to this, where I just remember being a kid in class and drawing, and then all the kids, all the classmates came up at the end to see what I was drawing. I think that always stuck with me and was like, okay, that's what I meant to do.
[0:12:57] LHL: Oh, my God.
[0:12:58] SW: You’re the art kid of the class.
[0:12:59] NT: I'm the art kid. I have to keep this going now.
[0:13:02] LHL: You had no choice.
[0:13:03] NT: I had no choice now, so I just kept on going. Just keep on going.
[0:13:08] SW: Years later and you're like, “Ugh. I wish I hadn't gotten pigeonholed into this drawing thing.”
[0:13:13] NT: I wish I did math. No, I’m just kidding.
[0:13:19] SW: That's great. You stuck with it and then you went to school for art.
[0:13:23] NT: Yup. Yeah.
[0:13:24] SW: Yeah. That's really cool.
[0:13:26] LHL: Do you have other artsy folks in your family, or creatives?
[0:13:29] NT: Yeah, my mom was a painter. When she saw me drawing, she was probably like, “Yes.” Yeah, they've always been supportive of all my drawings and all my shows and stuff like that. That's very important. I think, that me being creative is cool to have family and friends that support you.
[0:13:48] SW: Yeah. Absolutely.
[0:13:49] NT: I think, too, for artists, you're lucky to have the fan base to go with that. I think a lot of people too, could be artists. It's just that we just never gave up. We just kept on going with it.
[0:14:01] LHL: Right. You're probably spot. Like most of us, I don't know, are either discouraged from doing it early. Oh, it's not a career. You can make money doing that classic line. Yeah.
[0:14:12] NT: Yeah. I find a lot enjoying it, and I do. That's what keeps you going is the joy.
[0:14:17] SW: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Do you have any insights of what happened with photography?
[0:14:22] NT: For me doing photography? Yeah, I just found myself just drawing more. I was drawing ideas I wanted to take pictures of, but could never do. It limited me and I just, where I saw, I have more imagination than what this medium can do.
[0:14:39] SW: That's cool.
[0:14:40] NT: I enjoy photography, because it gave me that eye to look for good references now. It helped in that way. It’s interesting.
[0:14:49] LHL: Did I read that you collect old photography?
[0:14:51] NT: Yeah, I do. Yeah. Yeah.
[0:14:52] LHL: That's so great. Do you collect old cameras as well?
[0:14:54] NT: I do. Yeah.
[0:14:55] LHL: Me too. Yeah. I had a feeling.
[0:14:57] NT: Something about old photography. Yeah.
[0:15:00] LHL: Have you done alternative processes, or older processes of photography?
[0:15:04] NT: Yeah. Yeah. In school.
[0:15:05] LHL: In school. Yeah. When you have access to a dark room and all this stuff.
[0:15:09] NT: Yeah. Dark room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had my mom's old camera. I just remember taking pictures with that. It was cool.
[0:15:16] LHL: I love that.
[0:15:17] SW: It's really cool. Are there other – I saw a block print on your Instagram. Are there other mediums that you dabble in, or have dabbled in?
[0:15:26] NT: Yeah. I try them all. I dig oils for a little bit. I switch to watercolor, which I can do sometimes. Then I dig egg tempura, which was it's a cross between acrylic and watercolor. It's less fingy than watercolor. I like that for a couple of years. Now, I don't know if I can even do it, tell you the truth.
[0:15:49] LHL: What about gouache?
[0:15:51] NT: Gouache, I haven't. I haven't tried gouache.
[0:15:53] LHL: Because that's between acrylics and watercolors. I could see your work lending to that, your style.
[0:16:00] NT: I think as RS you collect things. I have a whole gouache set that's just staying there.
[0:16:05] LHL: Love that.
[0:16:06] NT: Oh, I should try that.
[0:16:08] SW: When you first joined us, you mentioned having a day job that you were coming from. Do you want to share a bit about what it's like to have a day job and then be a practicing artist on the nights and the weekends, or whenever you're not working, and how you have that balance and maintain that drive?
[0:16:24] NT: That's a good point. It's a good question. That’s a good question.
[0:16:27] SW: Because it's very inspiring to see. It's tough to stay with it.
[0:16:30] LHL: It’s really tough.
[0:16:31] SW: When you just want to be like, “Oh, it's dark at 5.00. I just want to go squirrel up in front of the TV.”
[0:16:37] NT: Exactly. Yeah. It's funny, because my day job is like accounting. It's like, your one side of your brain and then being creative, you use the other side of the brain. I think that helps where it's like, the separation there. I would say, keep you going is, I think with me, the digital drawing digitally, or drawing quickly is where I kept me going, because your time is so short, it feels like. To get something done quickly is really, really great for me. Plus, I like to work quickly. I like to just draw something up and be like, that's good, move on. Yeah, I guess it's that.
[0:17:20] SW: I guess, two-parter here. Do you have a set place where you create? Do you have a home studio, or a studio that you go to? Then, do you have a set schedule of when you plan out your art time?
[0:17:30] NT: This is going to be funny, but it's usually my wife's watching TV, I have four-year-old’s doing something, and we're staying on the couch and I have my iPad and I'm looking through references and drawing at the same time. It's literally just spontaneous a lot of times, especially with a young family, let's just go and start. Inspiration hits you and you start drawing. Excuse me, everyone. I have to go get my iPad. No one move.
[0:18:01] SW: Is being a father and a parent, has that influenced your art at all?
[0:18:05] NT: It definitely, definitely did digitally, because I realized quickly with the young family to get all your paints and pens out, and everything and by the time you get everything out, your idea’s either gone, or there's something you got to do with the family.
[0:18:22] SW: That’s a great point.
[0:18:22] NT: Digitally was like, this is great. I actually switched when he was born, because I could do it quickly, and then if he was crawling somewhere, I could go grab him.
[0:18:34] SW: Have you been able to involve him in your art making process yet?
[0:18:38] NT: Yeah. Now when my iPad is out, he'll want to draw, too.
[0:18:40] LHL: Oh, I love that.
[0:18:42] NT: He has a little section on there.
[0:18:43] SW: You know, Nate, we do a youth scene every year. We do a zines for adults as well. You should submit work to those, but the youth scene, maybe if your child is so inclined to be published as an artist.
[0:18:57] NT: Yeah. Start them young.
[0:18:57] LHL: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
[0:18:58] SW: Exactly.
[0:19:00] LHL: We always publish it in the summer, but I think we're going to be opening up the call very early on early next year. If you see that online, save up some art and submit it, or writing. We set that, too.
[0:19:12] NT: Definitely. That's cool.
[0:19:15] SW: I know your work from showing at the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts.
[0:19:18] NT: Oh, yes.
[0:19:19] SW: That was the first time I came across your name and your art. It was actually, it was funny. I was scrolling through Instagram and I was like, I know that one specifically. Because it must have been the picture that they used to advertise the show. Can you talk a little bit about showing your work in galleries and doing shows like that and challenges and successes and do you love it?
[0:19:37] NT: I do love it. Rochester Museum of Fine Arts is just a great space.
[0:19:41] SW: Oh, we know. We love that.
[0:19:43] LHL: We’re big fans.
[0:19:45] NT: Yeah. It's just experience, especially having – they do the solo shows. Something about having your solo show was exciting and also, nerve-wracking at the same time. Just gathering everything. Then once you're there, it's just great to mingle with people looking at your work in there. I also know, they are just for you, so it's just great to hear their feedback and have the whole space to yourself. It was fun to play in which drawings do I want to put into the space and how it will work. I ended up doing a huge – I had a huge print of one of my drawings digitally. That was cool for everyone to see.
[0:20:23] LHL: What's your first experience displaying your work in a gallery?
[0:20:27] NT: It's been a while since I had things on paper in a gallery. I think digital in a gallery is a little harder than –
[0:20:34] LHL: It is.
[0:20:35] NT: - than on paper. Galleries are like, “Oh, cool. It's digital.” And they move on. For illustration, it's great to put into – if I ever want to do books, or anything like that, it's good medium for that. But the galleries, I think, are a little bit tougher. Even though I do try galleries and I also try to price things, because I know most of them is a print. I try to price it a little, like affordable. It's a little different.
[0:21:03] SW: That's a whole challenge.
[0:21:05] NT: That’s a whole challenge. Yeah. Affordability is huge. Yeah.
[0:21:07] SW: Yeah. Pricing your work.
[0:21:10] NT: I think you'll get also get confused by digital. When you say it's digital, they think you're just – maybe just clicking and dragging things around. It's way more than that. It's still the pen work now. It wasn't always that way. It was clicking drag for a long time, which I did not like at all, because non-human digital art. Now with the pen, digital pen and all this is, I feel like is a great medium.
[0:21:39] LHL: Oh, yeah. Are you using Procreate, or what? Yup. Oh, okay. Perfect. Yeah. I love Procreate.
[0:21:43] NT: Yeah. Me too.
[0:21:45] LHL: I went to the Lightbox Expo in Pasadena, which is a convention for animators and illustrators and digital artists this past fall. And so, I got to meet some of the folks at Procreate there, and some talk down panels, or some were at the booth. It was like, “You're my favorite software ever.”
[0:22:05] NT: It was the best. I think it was $5.
[0:22:07] LHL: Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah. I think that most they've ever been is 15 bucks. They're very affordable and it's not a subscription. It's not $5, or $15 a month. It's once. Forever. Yeah. How do they stay in business? They’ve giving it away.
[0:22:23] SW: No, but really.
[0:22:24] LHL: Yeah. They just this past year released another sister app, Procreate Dreams, which is the animation. I guess, it was last year, but that one's amazing, too. I mean, yeah. They're such a great company. Oh, sorry. Let me just get on my soapbox for a minute. They are one of the only companies that I've seen come out with a stance against hardcore generative AI practices within their software, saying like, art is made by humans and we stand by human artists. Whereas, Adobe and a lot of other folks are like, let's scoot you on in here with more AI and we'll all work together and it'll be great. The machines won't take over, but I don't know. I think it's just nice to see a company do that. Okay. That's all I got to say. This is the Laura rant on.
[0:23:08] NT: I guess, my little rant on them too is –
[0:23:09] LHL: Let’s hear it.
[0:23:12] NT: They saved me to go back into drawing, because it's just a great avenue to use it. It's just very quick and it's quick to pick up and quick to use. Although it was a lot of learning at first to be proficient, or be the way you want it, because at first, I struggled with – there's so many options in there.
[0:23:33] LHL: It's very overwhelming.
[0:23:34] NT: Now, I just stick to one option. That's why everything looks similar is because I choose one option that works for me and I don't touch anything else on there. It's just that one six-speed pencil. That's all I use.
[0:23:46] LHL: That's it?
[0:23:46] NT: That’s it. That's all I use. Then sometimes I change it, I'm like, “Oh, no.”
[0:23:51] LHL: Are you using the smudge at all, or anything like that?
[0:23:53] NT: Yeah.
[0:23:54] LHL: Sometimes? Is it still like a six-speed smudge?
[0:23:56] NT: Yeah, six-speed. Yeah.
[0:23:58] LHL: Oh, my gosh. I stick to the same 10 brushes. There's hundreds upon hundreds of brushes, folks. You can really, because I kept buying brushes, or getting free brush packs and then all of a sudden, I have 100 brushes. Uh-oh. But I use the same 10 all the time. Once in a great while, I'll be like, okay, a challenge today is I have to use a brush I've never used before.
[0:24:20] NT: Oh, wow.
[0:24:21] LHL: It doesn't always come out that great, but it's still just a different way to loosen up. But yeah, a lot of love for Procreate. I think it's just so wonderful.
[0:24:30] NT: Oh, yeah.
[0:24:32] LHL: I noticed with your style when we were talking before about your work in the past versus now, I've noticed in the past you had a lot of outlines and line work. It feels like, now you really are doing the shapes. I find that fascinating that you're using the pencil brush. That's so cool. I think that your work doesn't always look digital, because of that. Because it looks like a medium, a fine art medium, I guess. That's a good way to have it all be cohesive.
[0:25:02] NT: Yeah, you can see my first start on digital, my first couple drawings, it was still the line work, and then the color. Then as years went on, I switched that and got rid of the line work, but I only used it where it makes sense, like for texture, or stuff like that.
[0:25:19] LHL: I love that.
[0:25:19] NT: That was progression for me, because I always did line work. That was my thing was black and white.
[0:25:26] LHL: So wild. I really like, another one, Sarah just scrolled past it was your vote one for this past election. I thought that was really great. It looks you used an animation feature for it, too. That's really cool. Have you done other animation type stuff?
[0:25:41] NT: Yeah, there's a few on there.
[0:25:42] LHL: Yeah? Oh, cool. I have to check them out.
[0:25:44] NT: I dig one of a pond melting and then a duck flies and lands. There's a few there that are winter melting, the snow melting and the spring coming up.
[0:25:55] LHL: Oh, that's awesome. I think that's at the beginning. That's actually all Procreate as well.
[0:25:59] LHL: Yeah, because even just, they have the animation feature.
[0:26:03] NT: Yeah. This is just each –
[0:26:04] LHL: Layer?
[0:26:05] NT: - layer is like a flip book.
[0:26:08] LHL: Yes. Yeah. Do they call it the onion setting, or something, where you can switch between them all?
[0:26:12] NT: Yeah. You make a bunch.
[0:26:13] LHL: Yeah. Yeah. I did that with some birds flapping, like a sketch. It's really fun to have animations. Major props to people that do that all the time. That's amazing. Also, with Procreate is exporting the video screen recording of it is really cool.
[0:26:29] NT: Oh, that is cool to watch. Yeah. It times you, too, which is funny.
[0:26:33] LHL: Yes. I know.
[0:26:34] NT: You’re like, “Oh, I just spent 45 minutes on that one drawing.”
[0:26:37] LHL: Oh, my gosh. I render a lot of my paintings, and sometimes it's like, here's nine hours of a painting. What?
[0:26:43] NT: Oh, yeah.
[0:26:46] SW: That's fun.
[0:26:47] LHL: Was it worth it? I don't know. Oh, my goodness. Do you anticipate going back to some physical mediums ever in the future? Maybe when a little one is not as little, or –
[0:27:02] NT: That's a good question. I think, maybe. I'm really enjoying digital, I guess, for now.
[0:27:11] LHL: That’s great.
[0:27:13] NT: It’s funny, because as you think back to your art career, you have processing your career where you like what you're working with, and then you switching out, like I did the black and white forever. I just thought that was the coolest thing. Then I switched to digital and more colorful and I'm like, “This is the best thing ever.” Maybe I'll switch to, I'll do digital, maybe do a painting off of that with gouache that I have in my attic.
[0:27:38] LHL: Yeah. You could go both ways. I follow an artist who draws pencil drawings, and then she takes a picture of it, puts it into Procreate and then she paints on top of it within it, so that some of the line work from original piece is still showing, but she’s manipulating the colors and adding brush strokes.
[0:27:53] NT: Oh, that’s cool.
[0:27:54] LHL: Yeah. I feel like there’s just so much. There’s so much to do.
[0:27:56] NT: Everybody does open it up.
[0:27:59] LHL: I think, yeah. The way you were speaking about it, too, like you could do it both ways.
[0:28:03] SW: Yeah. Well, and it sounds like, you're very open to experimenting with different stuff. That's really cool. Yeah. The world is your oyster.
[0:28:09] NT: Right.
[0:28:10] SW: You do a little bit of freelance work, right?
[0:28:13] NT: Here and there.
[0:28:14] SW: Yeah. Is that tough to do if you're not committing to it as your full-time thing? You've got to balance it with your full-time job, but also putting yourself out there and getting work.
[0:28:26] NT: Yeah. It's funny, because they – or, if someone commissions you, it's fine to explain that, well, it's going to look like this. I’m not going to draw like you, or how you might envision it. It's going to look like this. It's hard to describe.
[0:28:41] SW: Getting those expectations set.
[0:28:42] NT: Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to describe sometimes. I had someone that wanted their whole family. I was like, “Well, it won't look exactly like them, but it’ll look similar.” Then standing on the like, “Oh, you don’t do portraiture?” I'm like, “No. No.”
[0:29:00] LHL: I know. I think, sometimes when people hear, “Oh, you're an artist? That means you can just do all the art thing. You can do any style. You can do whatever.” It's like, you may not be able to, and you may not want to. It's also about enjoying the process, too.
[0:29:12] SW: Yuh. Yup. I hear that from photographers a lot. Like, yes, I can come take your photos. But no, I can't do it in a dark moody edit, because that's not my style. That's not what I do. Yeah. I'm like, hire the artist who's style you like.
[0:29:27] LHL: If you like hiring a rapper for a wedding song, or something. I’m sure they could try, but it's not really their style. Yeah.
[0:29:34] SW: Yup. It's not what they do.
[0:29:36] LHL: Unless, that's what you're going for.
[0:29:39] SW: Was it ever, and Laura, you can answer this, too, a little bit of a double-edged sword where you get a commission and you're like, “Yeah, sweet. I got a commission. Someone hired me to make art.” Then you're like, “Oh, and I have to make a commission.”
[0:29:50] NT: Yes. Exactly.
[0:29:51] LHL: God, that is so real.
[0:29:52] NT: That is real. Yeah.
[0:29:53] LHL: Because like, “Oh, someone loves my work. I'll get paid for my time. This is great. I'll have someone to have new art in their home. Win, win, win.” Sometimes it goes smoothly. Sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, then it's like, oh, this is twice the amount of work I thought it would be. What if they don't like it? That's the fear I have.
[0:30:12] NT: Yeah. The fear of that. Yeah. You working through it. Then you have those restraints too, which is a challenge and you're like, “Oh. Nobody would like this, but this is what they wanted.”
[0:30:25] SW: Right. You want to like what you made.
[0:30:26] NT: I’m like, “I hope they like it, but I don’t like it.”
[0:30:32] LHL: What other challenges are there for you as an artist and a small business owner? Your art is your own small little business. What else do you have to deal with that is a pain in the neck?
[0:30:44] NT: It's probably the scheduling. Obviously, the cost scale up there too, as you try to get. Because I do all the craft shows, so they all have fees. Then, you're trying to make sure that you make enough to make up for that and then hope to make a little bit more for a little bit more. I guess, what keeps it going with doing the fairs is just really the meeting the people. When you get compliments, that makes it all worth it. At the end of the day, it's like, that's sweet. It’s awesome.
[0:31:13] SW: That's so nice.
[0:31:15] LHL: It's positive and happy. Yeah.
[0:31:18] NT: Yeah. I had someone by one. This looks like my family. We all like to do this activity together. We're so excited to hang this up in our room. I was like, this is awesome.
[0:31:25] LHL: Sweet. Yeah. Do you have an idea of, and you may or not, but where the furthest piece of your art is that someone's purchase that's from – because when I was in college, someone from England was here on a vacation and they bought some of my sculpture work, and some of my illustrations back then. I mean, if it's still there, it's over in England and that's neat.
[0:31:51] NT: Yeah. That is neat. That's a good question. I’m trying to think of people that bought stuff.
[0:31:56] LHL: Yeah. I feel like, there's another artist we interviewed who was trying to keep track of all the states that their artwork was in was. Who was that? Kelly Stück, maybe?
[0:32:04] SW: Emily Slama, but I'm only 65% sure, that she's got a map where all of her – she makes earrings, where all of her jewelry has shipped to. She's like, checks it off on the map.
[0:32:14] NT: That's so cool.
[0:32:15] SW: Honestly, that was episode 16, so I could be wrong.
[0:32:20] NT: I love that. That's cool.
[0:32:23] LHL: Yeah. I feel like, there was a couple other folks who have done that, too. Maybe that's a common thing.
[0:32:26] SW: It probably is.
[0:32:26] LHL: It is very charming to think about where your art is and where it is in their homes.
[0:32:30] SW: Especially if you do online sales, which is really easy to keep track of that, versus you might be, or do you do sell online?
[0:32:37] NT: Not a lot.
[0:32:39] SW: It's mostly you're selling to people in person.
[0:32:41] NT: Yeah. Oh, I say, I guess a cool story about that, well, where it ends up, I was in Concorde actually doing an art fair. This group of women came by and they just tell me the story that they're, “Oh, we're on vacation. We're just going through. We're up from North Carolina. We're just driving through all the states. We're going up to Maine, and then we're going up to Canada. Just going on this adventure and we just drove by, saw this – everything's up here. We're like, what's this? We love your work.” They all bought a piece and they all just took it with them on their venture up north. I was like, that's the coolest.
[0:33:13] LHL: That's awesome.
[0:33:14] SW: I love it.
[0:33:15] NT: I'm so glad you told me that. That's so awesome. Somewhere is somewhere in Canada, maybe.
[0:33:19] LHL: I love that. When my husband and I travel, we always try to buy at least two or three pieces of art wherever we're at, because I feel like, that's just so great about the memory of this. Then you're taking home a piece of that artist.
[0:33:31] NT: Oh, yeah. I thought that was just so cool. I'm like, you guys are cool.
[0:33:34] SW: I was hoping that your answer was going to be, you did this really great illustration of Joe Biden. I was really hoping that it was going to be like, “Oh, yeah. Joe Biden bought his piece.”
[0:33:43] LHL: And it's in the White House.
[0:33:45] NT: Yeah. Right. Oh.
[0:33:48] LHL: Maybe it is.
[0:33:49] NT: I wish.
[0:33:50] SW: We don't know.
[0:33:51] NT: I'll send him a print.
[0:33:52] LHL: You should, before it's too late. Hold on. know. I see that on your website, you offer gift cards. I think that's something a lot of artists like, “I don't put that on my website.” That's a great idea, because the gift of art for someone, but let them pick it out. The holiday season’s here, folks. Maybe go to natedraws.com/giftcard.
[0:34:16] NT: You like shopping done. You have any shopping done.
[0:34:21] LHL: Yeah. That's really cool. I like that. I love the little fox illustration that's on that page, actually. That's really cute. I think it's almost time for rapid fire. Do you have any other big questions, Sarah, before we move to that? No? Try to pick out which one I want.
[0:34:37] NT: Are you shopping right now?
[0:34:41] LHL: I guess, one more or the last bigger question is, how do you define success as an artist? We'll just give you a really easy one at the end here.
[0:34:50] SW: No big deal.
[0:34:53] NT: Hmm. I think, each of us has to find what they think is their own success. I think for me, it's for a long time, I didn't want to show much. To get out there and do these fairs and get some things in galleries, that's a win right there. I think that's the thing. Chasing that.
[0:35:12] SW: That’s super interesting. Did you have some shyness, or imposter syndrome about other people seeing your work? Because that's a whole different ball game.
[0:35:21] NT: Yeah. I think, definitely, I got more confident using more color. I think that's where the switch happened. Because I was doing a lot of black and white and also, my themes changed during that time. It wasn't cohesive enough, I think, for an audience. I think that's when I felt like, okay, people might enjoy this now. I should try to get this out here. I think, it's always like a growth when you're an artist to say, maybe the audience is ready for this.
[0:35:51] LHL: Right. Yeah. I know. That is tough.
[0:35:54] SW: Have you done a good job resisting the urge to care about what happens when you post a piece on Instagram? Because we talk about this a lot, we're you might spend a lot of time on a piece and really love it and then put it on Instagram and it doesn't get any likes. Then you put some whatever thing on Instagram and it gets a ton of likes and you're just like, whatever.
[0:36:12] NT: Oh, yeah. It's definitely Instagram, that's the whole thing. It's been changed so many times. When I first got on there, it kept me drawing, because you would get a lot of interactions. Then now, it's like, well. I got some likes. But I know, now you more like, you enjoy the core people that, okay, they all liked it again. Yes. You're more –
[0:36:38] LHL: Quality over quantity. Yeah.
[0:36:40] NT: Before, I got so many. Now, well, I got the core people. So, this is cool. And a few extras, so that's cool.
[0:36:49] LHL: Yeah. The marketing side of being an artist is just, we could just have a whole discussion, a whole episode on that.
[0:36:54] NT: Just a full.
[0:36:57] SW: Well, I think it's time for rapid fire, which is just a quick little segment that is quick questions with quick answers.
[0:37:03] NT: All right.
[0:37:04] SW: Hopefully. If not, we edit it down.
[0:37:07] NT: You got to stretch.
[0:37:08] SW: He's stretching, folks. He's getting ready. First one's going to be easy for you. I think we already know the answer.
[0:37:14] LHL: Yeah, probably.
[0:37:15] SW: What other artists, or artists have influenced you the most?
[0:37:18] NT: Oh, that. I tell you, I guess, guys that earlier. I get a lot of comparison to Grandma Moses and Horace Pippin. All of them were –
[0:37:28] LHL: I see it. Wicked. Yeah.
[0:37:31] NT: Folk art in general, actually. I love folk art. Folk artist is a big. And on top of that, the music I like is folk.
[0:37:41] LHL: Nice. Okay.
[0:37:42] NT: It all goes hand in hand.
[0:37:43] LHL: I love that.
[0:37:44] SW: Perfect. Do you listen to folk music while you're drawing your folk art?
[0:37:48] NT: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
[0:37:51] LHL: What are some folk bands that you listen to that you love?
[0:37:53] NT: Oh, geez. Now you got me on the spot.
[0:37:55] LHL: Uh-oh. The real hard question.
[0:37:59] NT: Now, let's see.
[0:38:00] SW: I actually see a lot of music in your art, because you've done a few –
[0:38:04] NT: I'll say, Old Crow Medicine Show is a big one. Yeah.
[0:38:09] LHL: Nice.
[0:38:10] SW: I see album covers.
[0:38:11] NT: I got a lot. I guess, my music list is huge. As a lot of artists, you just have a huge base of like, well, what am I listening to today?
[0:38:19] LHL: Yeah. Right. I know. Seriously.
[0:38:23] NT: It changes. But for sure.
[0:38:26] SW: You had a, a phase where you were doing a bunch of album cover.
[0:38:29] LHL: Black Keys.
[0:38:30] SW: The Black Keys.
[0:38:31] LHL: I love The Black Keys.
[0:38:31] NT: Oh, Black Keys. That was fun. That was fun. Yup. Yeah, I dabble in that. Yeah.
[0:38:35] SW: Blitzen Trapper.
[0:38:36] NT: Yeah. That's a big one. See, now you're remembering what I like to listen to.
[0:38:41] LHL: Yeah. We got you. We got you covered. What is your favorite thing about New Hampshire or New England?
[0:38:50] NT: I think it's the change of seasons, even though everyone doesn't like the winter. I enjoy – Although, when they change the clocks, I don't like that. But other than that –
[0:38:58] LHL: Yeah. True. That’s fair.
[0:38:59] NT: I do think it’s a lot of subject matter, too, with New England.
[0:39:02] LHL: That's awesome.
[0:39:03] SW: Makes sense. Is there any mediums that you haven't tried yet, but you want to? What's on your wish list? I have one, Laura.
[0:39:11] NT: It's going to be – I've said this before, but it's going to be gouache, because I have in my act.
[0:39:15] LHL: I love that. All right. I expect to see some.
[0:39:18] SW: Yeah. Yeah. By the time this comes out. You got three weeks.
[0:39:23] NT: Yeah. You have three.
[0:39:25] LHL: What's yours, Sarah?
[0:39:25] SW: Pottery.
[0:39:26] LHL: Oh, nice.
[0:39:27] SW: Image some pottery.
[0:39:28] NT: I’m always fascinated by you’re going to do pottery.
[0:39:32] SW: Yeah. Sounds really hard.
[0:39:33] NT: It looks very hard.
[0:39:33] SW: It's fun. Expensive and a little bit like, there's a high barrier to entry. I think I can make it work.
[0:39:39] LHL: I did a one-off class at Exeter. Fine arts and crafts.
[0:39:43] SW: Yeah. That's how I'm going to start.
[0:39:44] LHL: It's awesome. It's really fun.
[0:39:46] NT: I think you can also be a creative, too. You can paint on them. You can do what. Maybe I'm going to do gouache and –
[0:39:53] LHL: I can't wait to see.
[0:39:54] NT: - and pottery.
[0:39:55] LHL: You can, yeah, paint on your pottery.
[0:39:57] NT: I got pottery and art for sale. There we go.
[0:40:00] SW: I love it. I think this is partially inspired by my child, because we do a lot of Play-Doh now. That's the thing.
[0:40:04] NT: Oh, right, right.
[0:40:06] LHL: Yeah. 3D is really fun.
[0:40:07] SW: Play-Doh is really fun to play with. Better than any fidget spinner type thing. Just squeeze some Play-Doh.
[0:40:17] LHL: What is your favorite color?
[0:40:19] NT: I'd say, green. Green.
[0:40:22] SW: What's your favorite scent?
[0:40:24] NT: I would say, you know that cold, crisp air. That scent that – that's what I was saying.
[0:40:32] LHL: That's a good one.
[0:40:33] SW: It’s a good one.
[0:40:33] LHL: I think we haven't gotten that yet.
[0:40:35] NT: Oh, nice.
[0:40:36] LHL: What's your favorite sound?
[0:40:38] NT: I’d say, wind. I always draw wind in my drawings.
[0:40:44] LHL: That's great.
[0:40:45] SW: Oh, interesting. What's your favorite texture to touch?
[0:40:50] NT: My first thing that popped in my mind was bark on a tree.
[0:40:54] SW: Every answer you just gave was all nature-based ones. I love that. You are just on brand with your art. Green, crisp cold air, tree bark, wind. Wow.
[0:41:05] NT: See, we’re in the season.
[0:41:07] LHL: You've got to do a children's book.
[0:41:09] SW: Oh, you should do it. You should do a children's book.
[0:41:09] NT: I get that a lot. Yeah. Of course, with everything, it's hard to get into publishing. I've tried a few avenues. That's probably the biggest challenge is breaking into that mole, because it's so competitive. I would love to do a children's book. I think I might have to do it on my own, as far as the best avenue.
[0:41:30] SW: We can connect to you with former guest, Sarah Fenerty, who's an artist who just released a children's book.
[0:41:36] LHL: Yes.
[0:41:37] SW: You guys can chat about it.
[0:41:38] NT: Yes. Yeah. Awesome.
[0:41:41] LHL: What's the most inspiring location you've traveled to?
[0:41:45] NT: I would say, I went to Italy. This is a long time ago, but that was a cool experience. Totally different than New England.
[0:41:54] LHL: But still inspiring, nonetheless.
[0:41:55] NT: Still inspiring nonetheless.
[0:41:58] SW: What's the last new thing you've learned?
[0:42:00] NT: Nothing. I was kidding. Oh. I don't know. I've got to skip that question.
[0:42:09] SW: It's a really hard one, actually. It could be like, something you've learned about yourself, or it could be something really anecdotal, like how a vacuum cleaner was repaired, or something. Because someone said that once. They said something about being able to learn how to do their new attachments on their vacuum. I don't remember who said it, but I'll never forget it, because it was so surprising.
[0:42:29] NT: I would say, mowing the lawn, because we just moved into a house.
[0:42:33] LHL: Oh, nice.
[0:42:33] SW: Congrats.
[0:42:34] NT: I learned that. What not to do and how not to make it run away from you.
[0:42:40] LHL: That's a good thing to learn.
[0:42:41] SW: It’s so exciting.
[0:42:42] NT: I drew about it later. There is a drawing out there.
[0:42:49] LHL: This is our clincher question. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?
[0:42:54] NT: I would say, keep on going. Don't give up.
[0:42:59] LHL: Yeah. That's very important.
[0:43:02] SW: Yeah. Like it.
[0:43:02] NT: You got this.
[0:43:04] LHL: Nice.
[0:43:05] NT: It's a confidence going. You got it.
[0:43:07] SW: All encouragement.
[0:43:09] LHL: Thank you so much for joining us today.
[0:43:11] NT: Yeah. Thanks for having me.
[0:43:13] SW: It was really great.
[0:43:14] NT: This was a lot of fun.
[0:43:14] LHL: Yeah. Yeah. Was it less nerve wracking than you thought it would be? Or, was it pretty –
[0:43:20] NT: Oh, this is great. Yeah. No. Yeah. No. You guys are great. I had a lot of fun.
[0:43:27] SW: Well, thank you again, Nate, for being on the show. With that –
[0:43:30] ALL: Show us your creative guts.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:43:37] SW: Another huge thank you to Nate Twombly for joining us on Creative Guts.
[0:43:40] LHL: That was so fun.
[0:43:42] SW: It really was.
[0:43:43] LHL: Yeah.
[0:43:44] SW: He's so sweet. I appreciate how open to experimentation he is.
[0:43:51] LHL: I really appreciate how open he is to evolution and especially with mediums. Talking about the jump from this to this. I think in my head, I have this identity crisis, as far as like, well, I'm a fine artist, but I'm a digital artist, but no, I've got to be a fine artist. I think he just had the most natural, well, it's not really feasible in life right now with a young one. Digital is amazing. It's great for this. It's great for this. It just, it makes sense to not resist change.
[0:44:18] SW: Right. Right. Nothing he's doing feels forced. It just feels very authentic.
[0:44:23] LHL: Yes. Exactly. Yes. He's very just present in the moment. Authentic. He was very, very fun to talk to and just, it felt like such a natural way to discuss art and the process of making it.
[0:44:37] SW: I felt like I couldn't stop looking at his work, though. I just kept scrolling up and down in his Instagram and I don't know. It’s just, there's so much there, like a Where's Waldo? There's so much there to look at. There's such an interesting evolution and you can watch his work change as you scroll through the years and you're like, “Oh, I really like that and I really like this and I really like that.” I just, I don't know. It's really fun. It's really fun.
[0:45:03] LHL: His very thoughtful approach to the way that he takes on art and has been a lifelong creative. I really appreciate that. I really appreciate folks who are still pursuing their dream while having a day job. I don’t think I can celebrate that enough. I think that's part of why we started this gosh, darn podcast, was to feature folks that are just finding that time. Especially when you have a young family. I personally don't, unless you count my pets. I know that's offensive to parents, probably. No, finding that time when you're just stretched so thin. That would be tough.
[0:45:36] SW: Yeah. Parenting is tough at all stages, but parenting a toddler specifically is. Yeah. Good for him. It just takes advantage of those moments that present themselves.
[0:45:47] LHL: Yeah. I'm a big fan of Nate. I think he's great.
[0:45:50] SW: Yeah.
[0:45:52] LHL: If you want to check out more of what Nate does, go to www.natedraws.com. @NateDrawss with two S’s at the end is his Instagram handle. As always, you can find those links and more in the episode description and on our website, creativegutspodcast.com. You will find us on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn where our handle is @CreativeGutsPodcast.
[0:46:16] SW: This episode is sponsored in part by the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, who we totally talked about during this episode. Thank you to our friends in Rochester for their support of the show.
[0:46:26] LHL: A big, huge thank you to Art Upfront Street for providing a space where Creative Guts can record in Exeter, New Hampshire.
[0:46:33] SW: If you love listening and you want to support Creative Guts, you can make a donation, leave us a review, interact with our content on social media, purchase a merch, whatever you're able to do, we appreciate you.
[0:46:43] LHL: Thank you for tuning in. We are about to head off into our holiday break for the end of 2024. We will be back in early 2025 with another episode of Creative Guts.
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