I’m Naters, an artist who “grew up” in a small Colorado mountain town. As a kid I found art to be the only area of academics in which I excelled. So I focused my education around the arts as best as I knew how (this really just means I drew in class a lot.) After receiving an Animation degree in Florida, I returned to Colorado to work as a freelance illustrator and play in the mountains.
I wanted to try my hand at manga, so I came up with a fitting story to tell. It was a fun approach. I drew it traditionally on a 19x24 sheet of paper. Turns out there isn't a scanner large enough for that size in my tiny town so I ended up cutting the original into quarters and piecing it back together in photoshop. But I leaned a lot through the process. and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.
I liked the open ended prompt this month. I love comics because they use simple art to serve a simple purpose: Storytelling. I love that they're disposable, that once they've told their story, they can be discarded. And I love that comics seem to have been bestowed with as inherent silliness. So, using traditional pen and ink, I went with a simple silent comic strip gag. Enjoy.
I'm really trying to only submit single page comics to these monthly SVS challenges. This month I wanted to steer away from the halloween motif and pull from my time in Louisiana. I'll try to post my progress in a thread next time, but ideas tend to snowball, and I just have to run with it. Anyways, I hope you like it.
I think this is going to have to be my last submission for a while. Hope you dig it.
Cool! Here is my Yeti design. Check out my thread to see the progression. I decided to give it an annoyed and aggressive personality because the cute lovable yeti has become an animation cliché. This yeti just wants climbers to stop leaving their @#&%! garbage on it's @#&%! mountain.
Here's my yeti's lair. I tried adding so many different elements, flags, weapons, boxes, crates, tanks, but it all only cluttered the image. I designed a minimalistic yeti, so I feel like this home is pretty fitting.
I did another quick little comic for the competition.
I love both minimalistic illustrations and contrasting subject with image. Being that the prompt is simply "Love" I wanted to keep my image just as simple, creating depth within the negative space by using the perspective of his footprints in the snow.
Instead of the telling a story about the best and most enjoyable parts of love, I decided to present one of loves darker sides.
I originally designed my yeti for animation, based on the first prompt. I'm now realizing that these prompts are geared more towards children's book illustrations. Which is fine, but I'm sticking to my guns, because sticky guns funny.
This yeti's core characteristic is misanthropy, which is why I refrained from adding any humanoid dressing to it (hat, scarf, mailbox, doormat) It was all too "welcoming" for this character. This yeti is stubborn and is not going to let anyone tell it what to do... not even the prompt text 
So here's my tongue-in-cheek approach.
(I was going to have a frozen hiker in the ice, but felt like that was a bit macabre, so it's a Himalayan Yak instead.)
I like the lines but they're too stark. You could lower the opacity of the black or change the line color to a dark brown.
Back in 2017, SVS asked for drawings of their mascot, the Red Bunny, to hang in their offices on the "Wabbit Wall." My submission never made it through the postoffice gauntlet and was returned to me. It's just been sitting in the un-opened envelope in my studio. So I figured I'd re-open it and share it with you all here.
I think this is going to have to be my last submission for a while. Hope you dig it.
I think you're all right. I tweaked it to make it less busy around the flies and stench. Thanks for all your suggestions.
@Georgios-Christopoulos I know you're pretty far along, but I just noticed that all their mouths are the same. Maybe the youngling in the middle could be licking their lips or something. but it's looking great!
Hi there! I just wanted to share that I'll be doing a radio show for the next several weeks!
Every Wednesday from 9-10 MST me and a buddy will be taking over an art show called Art Matters on our local radio. It's no "3 Point Perspective" but it'll be nice background noise while you draw. I would love it if people from SVS tuned in. You can listed every Wed from 9-10 (staring tomorrow) at
http://www.radiorethink.com/listen/KHEN/
Also we're looking for topics and questions so feel free to send some my way!
Hope you enjoy!
@Georgios-Christopoulos Your right I should have left the text in for the blank one.
Thanks y'all! So here are the two versions I'm choosing between. The cave shape is a fun concept but I prefer the one without it. What do you think?
