Artist in Residence

Double the fun The digital animation artist and traditional painter makes the most of both mediums in his LA studio

Digital animation artist and traditional painter Nathan Fowkes makes the most of both mediums in his LA studio.

I often work for local studios but do my work at home, driving in for key meetings and art reviews

Welcome to my studio! I live on the farthest north-east reach of Los Angeles, where the city ends and the neighbourhood rolls up into the local canyons. It’s the peaceful life that I’ve always hoped for and finally acquired in recent years, after working in-house at DreamWorks Animation for 15 years.

The studio is a separate building in my backyard and I work here full time, freelancing primarily on feature animation projects. I often work for local studios like Disney and Paramount Animation, but do my work at home, driving in for key meetings and art reviews.

My schedule is not an orthodox one, I do work from nine to five, but it’s the overnight nine to five! I sleep through the morning, then take care of business meetings, calls and

emails during the afternoon with the actual painting time mostly happening after my family is settled down for bed.

The studio is equipped with a digital painting setup on one side and a traditional painting setup on the other. I love working with both, and like to blend the two by keeping sketchbooks nearby so that I can quickly rough out ideas in pencil or marker. I then scan my sketches into Photoshop for development and full-colour treatment.

And my sketchbooks are my best creative hack! Whenever I need to take a break or even procrastinate about my commercial work, I’ll break out one of my many sketchbooks and splash around some tone or colour to try to come up with something interesting. I take a break from art by doing art! It’s what keeps me productive and prolific enough to post something on social media 365 days a year.

fighting the elements

My traditional painting setup includes oils and acrylics, but I’ve primarily settled on watercolours and gouache as a favourite medium. My movie painting career began in the early 90s before digital painting was a thing. We painted everything in acrylics and I’ve loved the medium ever since, but when I tried to take them outdoors to paint landscapes I had to fight them permanently drying on my palette and in my brushes. I painted with oils throughout art school and still really love them, but struggle with their portability outdoors and harsh solvents in the studio.

Whenever I need to take a break or procrastinate about my commercial work, I’ll break out a sketchbook

So watercolour and gouache became my go-to medium for painting outdoors and has now come back into the studio as my primary medium here as well. You can see my preparations for an upcoming gallery show of my plein air and studio paintings!

For me there’s no such thing as one perfect medium or studio space, the grass always feels greener on the other side of the studio and it’s always right there within my reach!

Nathan is an animation artist with credits on 12 feature animated films and a consultant on theatrical design for AAA video game studios. Additionally, he teaches in his native Los Angeles and online at Schoolism.com. Nathan’s work can be seen at www.nathanfowkes.com.

My backyard garden studio is a vast improvement over the 30-mile LA commute that I used to make daily.

I surround myself with sketchbooks. I’ve collected a variety of them from all over the world, including one that was custom made for me in Florence as a gift from a local art school. Under my computer desk is a hidden pullout table. I bring it out when I need drawing and painting space while looking at reference on the monitor. My favourite tools for sketchbook work are black Prismacolor pencils, bold ballpoint pens and especially Pentel #101 brushpens. I make sure to keep them all within easy reach. Here’s a blow dryer holster for the watercolours that I do on the pull-out table. This carving is a memento from a painting trip to Peru where I visited Machu Picchu and ended up lost in mountain fog, but eventually came away with some memorable sketches. These are field and studio paintings being prepped for an upcoming gallery show! I keep a selection of sketchbooks within easy reach at my computer desk to rough out ideas or to just take a break from staring at the screen. This taboret side-table has a water container holder built into the top. This avoids the pain of knocked over buckets of dirtied water!

Here’s a work-inprogress. All pigments are from watercolour squeeze tubes and I use opaque white gouache as needed. To achieve a strong range of colour I like to have two versions of each colour hue, for instance a golden yellow like cadmium yellow deep and a greener yellow like Lemon yellow.

The studio has shelf after shelf of useful art books, but the secret truth is that they’re quickly forgotten in the glow of my beloved science fiction novels!

An easy chair is the real key to productivity! Work days are often long and the ability to close my eyes when I feel the need is the main reason I don’t work “in-house” for animation studios.

It’s fun to put up movie posters of films I’ve worked on. I make sure to get signatures on each from our team of artists and designers.

Extra strong dark chocolate is what fuels the late-night working sessions.