nateomedia » Notebook

Building Blocks

Nathan Olsen — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:47:34 +0000

This was one of the last pieces I finished for my MFA thesis exhibition. Like the rest of the work developed for the show, this piece is my attempt to talk about and reflect on my childhood experiences. I was made to believe as a child that all this — life — was happening for some reason. That my life meant something. That there was a plan. The robot in this piece is meant as a sort of stand-in for God or, more specifically, Fate. The comic book page is here being taken apart, it’s carefully constructed two dimensional surface slowly pealed away and reshaped by this three dimensional interloper. The rigid structure and clear-cut morality of the comic book is defeated by an outside force — an unseen hand (or claw) that shapes the world according to some predefined ruleset that is inscrutable to the inhabitants of the page.

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Post tags: art, comic book, Illustration, robot

The Exhibition

Nathan Olsen — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:05:16 +0000

For those of you who have been kind enough to follow my work but were unable to attend my MFA exhibition, I thought I might post some photographs from the show. Unfortunately, I don’t have any shots of the opening reception — after all the hard work that went into getting the show up, I was just happy to be conscious and in attendance that night. The reception was great though — there was a huge turn-out and I had a lot of fun talking to folks about my work.

There was a brief write-up of the show in the campus newspaper.

The work in the show is all from large scale digital files — many of which are over 3GB in size. The largest prints, the candy wrapper series, were printed at 3′x3′ and from files that each contain 234,090,00 pixels (15,300px by 15,300px). I’ve never worked this large before and seeing these pieces at this scale was really gratifying. Months of drawing, painting, layering, masking, and color correction went into each piece but I never really got a good sense about how it was all working until I finally saw the final prints on the gallery walls.

Now that the show is over, I’m looking forward to figuring out what to do next. I’d love to continue working on some of the ideas that developed out of this body of work, but I’m not quite sure how to proceed. Working at such a large scale is very demanding and outputting high quality, archival prints at these sizes is not easy on the pocket book. I would love to do a short run of limited edition prints of some of these pieces.

By the way, this entire album of photos can also be found on my Facebook page. Liking my Facebook page is a great way to keep up-to-date with what I’m doing and to help me spread the word about my work.

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Post tags: art, csulb, gallery, Illustration, MFA, thesis

Creature Comforts

Nathan Olsen — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 07:21:29 +0000

The body of work I’ve been developing over the past six months has been about my childhood. This piece is probably the most personal — I used handwriting from my grandmother, mother and father in the background and the bear pattern was the creation of my mom, who was a teddy bear maker in the 1980s. She was never a big name in the business, but her bears have been published in teddy bear calendars and occasionally find their way onto Ebay. My parents’ creative efforts had a profound affect on my childhood, so this was partially an attempt to address my feelings about their work.

Growing up, I never had a sense that I came from a creative family. Even though my father was a woodworker and my mother designed bears, I never connected that to my compulsion to draw. It wasn’t until years later when I discovered a box of old manuscripts that my grandmother had written in the 1950s and started going through the photographic negatives from my grandfather’s darkroom that I started to understand the role my family played in how I developed into the person I am today.

My grandparents were quite old by the time I was born. So were my parents, for that matter. My grandfather died when I was eight and my grandmother was in a nursing home with dementia by the time I was a teenager. I lost my parents to cancer in 2002 and 2006. At thirty-four, I feel like I’m just now starting to understand who I am and my place in the world and I envy people who have the opportunity at my age to know their parents and grandparents as peers rather than as authority figures.

Me? I am left to converse with the dead. They don’t talk much, but they’re good listeners.

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Post tags: art, Illustration, robots, teddy bear

Playing With Panels

Nathan Olsen — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:03:44 +0000

This guy may look a little bit familiar — he first showed up as one of the skateboard designs I posted a few weeks back. It was an interesting challenge to figure out how to translate those markings into a three dimensional figure.

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Post tags: art, comic book, Illustration, robot

“Meanwhile, Below” Print For Sale

Nathan Olsen — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:55:47 +0000

Hey folks! It’s been a long time coming, but I finally have a new print for sale. For those of you who have been following my work, you probably recognize the Lollypop Squid from a previous print of mine.

This new print, Meanwhile, Below, is offered in my store as a 12″x12.5″ giclée on 13″x15″ acid-free fine art paper and ships signed by me, the artist.

While I’m really happy with how this piece came out, it’s been a long journey to get it to this point. I actually started the piece last winter, initially rendering it as a pencil drawing.

At the time, I was mimicking the workflow of many digital illustrators by starting with a pencil drawing and then moving to digital coloring. However, my method of digital coloring was a bit… complicated. Slow, tedious — those would also be apt descriptions. I mean, the results were always great, but I really didn’t enjoy the process and I was really getting bogged down while working on this one.

After a good month (yes, month — perhaps longer, but that’s too embarrassing to admit to) or so of working on this print, I gave up. I needed to find a new way of working. So, I set this print aside and started experimenting, looking for better, faster, more enjoyable ways to make pictures.

Comparing the final image to what I made a year ago, I think it’s clear that all that work hasn’t gone to waste. There were certainly some nice elements to the early piece, but I’m much happier with the results I’m getting now. More importantly, I’m much happier while I’m working, which is also really important.

Once again, if you’d like to have a copy of this print for yourself, you can find them in my online store.

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Post tags: Illustration, lollypop, nathan olsen, ocean, print, squid

Skateboard Deck Illustrations

Nathan Olsen — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:01:08 +0000

I spent the last few days having some fun with some skateboard deck designs. I’m pretty happy with the results and can’t wait to see each of them printed on a board. I only plan to get a couple made, but that could change if there is interest.

So, is anybody interested?

I’ve found a company that will print small batches of skate decks for a pretty reasonable price. They use good wood too — their decks get favorable reviews. 100% Canadian Maple. If you’re interested in purchasing a deck, let me know in the comments. If there’s enough interest, I’ll work on putting it together.

Rotten Apple Pattern Tile

Nathan Olsen — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:14:56 +0000

There’s really not much to say in the way of explaining this piece. Do you remember playing cops and robbers as a kid? So do I.

Sour Grape Pattern Tile

Nathan Olsen — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:54:12 +0000

Keeping with the theme I established a couple of posts back, here’s a new pattern I just completed — this time featuring scared screaming spooks. Pop culture is filled with stories of aliens and ghosts haunting our bedrooms — I thought it might be fun to turn the tables and have them scare each other for a change.

With these patterned illustrations, I’m really interested in deconstructing the surface and exploring ways to abstract my use of shape and color as I describe form and space. There’s an aesthetic developing here that I’m really happy with — time to go start the next one!

Dullsville Illustration

Nathan Olsen — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:53:27 +0000

Orange Mummylade Pattern Tile

Nathan Olsen — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:31:52 +0000

Something new! I got to thinking recently about the similarities between the outfits worn by mummies and ninja and it amused me that these two historical costumes — which have absolutely nothing in common — visually pair pretty well together.

This piece is, in a way, not yet finished. I don’t want to reveal my plans just yet, but the more astute viewer might note that this illustration can actually be tiled.

Sort of interesting, right?