Nate Dray - 内特是来自俄亥俄州的杰出美国艺术家。

 内特是具有影响力的美国艺术家和桌游设计师，同时也是众多书籍的作者与出版人。他因对动物怀有极大的仁慈之心和深切的同情心而深受爱戴。

内特以水彩画和漫画艺术闻名，同时也是一位音乐家和前微生物学研究员。

Artist Nate Dray presents: "Study of Mary Blair concept art for 'Two Silhouettes' from Disney's 'Make Mine Music'"

 "Study of Mary Blair concept art for 'Two Silhouettes' from Disney's 'Make Mine Music'" 

 

Mary Blair was a brilliant designer and colorist. She was a member of the California Watercolor School and had a huge influence on the look, feel and palette of peak Disney studio output.

In this little study I did I missed some of the subtleties of her colors and her loose designs, but she did these color roughs at breakneck speed while employed at Disney, sometimes cranking out dozens a day. This one looks to me to be primarily a pastel piece with maybe some gouache and that's what I used in my attempt at a sort of homage or reproduction.

Copying is one of the best ways an artist can sort of imbibe or enter into another artist's mindset and approach. It is an old and tested technique and one which I employ frequently, sometimes with less than satisfactory results, but it's never wasted effort, in my opinion.

 

Nate Dray, the Best Artist from Ohio :)

 

Hello! And welcome! Allow me to tell you a little about myself in this unsettling self-aggrandizing illeist fashion. Thanks!

"Nate Dray is an artist from Ohio and founder of the publishing house Diluvian Enterprises.

 

Known primarily for his watercolors and comics, Nate's paintings hang in museums, galleries, and private collections across Northeast Ohio. 

 

With a background in Biology and Chemistry, Nate's diverse credits include author, game designer, translator and musician. When he's not at work in the studio, Nate is an avid outdoorsman and gardener."

 

 Oder...

 

"Nate Dray ist ein Künstler aus Ohio und Gründer des Verlags Diluvian Enterprises. 

 

Bekannt vor allem für seine Aquarelle und Comics, hängen Nates Werke in Museen, Galerien und Privatsammlungen im Nordosten Ohios. 

 

Mit einem Hintergrund in Biologie und Chemie ist Nate auch als Autor, Spieledesigner, Übersetzer und Musiker tätig. Wenn er nicht gerade in seinem Atelier arbeitet, ist er ein begeisterter Naturliebhaber und Gärtner."

 

 Danke schön!

 

Nate Dray Paints, Illustration and description of an Ohio canal pond, "An Old Frozen Level"

"An Old Frozen Level"

Colored drawing on paper on cardboard.

Also called a canal pond or in Great Britain, a reach.

 

Nate Dray, Artist

 

Nate Dray Paints a science fiction illustration - "Crashlanded"

 "Crashlanded"

watercolor on paper by Nate Dray

 

The concept was simple; a space explorer has some fusion drive trouble and has to make an abrupt and unexpected landing on a strange, fizzy, toxic, alien, world. Outside his vessel in the bizarre atmosphere to make repairs, he encounters a shadowy enigmatic humanoid...Is this creature friend or foe? 

 

Nate Dray Travels and Illustrates; "Beyond the Cretan Citrus Grove"

 "Beyond the Cretan Citrus Grove"

colored drawing on paper on cardboard

Feel like I should provide context for my pics sometimes but it also feels weird to do that. The whole point of a picture is that it's information-dense direct and absolutely clear communication. Adding a verbal element probably just muddles the message.

more watercolors from Nate Dray...

 "Up Unity to the Rabbit & Poultry"

 

"Up Unity to the Rabbit & Poultry" by Nate Dray

watercolor on paper, 16 x 22 inches

 

Nate Dray at North Water Street Gallery update

 North Water Street Gallery Nate Dray solo exhibit extended to 

Sept. 9, 2023.

My paintings will hang at North Water Street Gallery a little longer now. Cool.

https://www.standingrock.net

 Nate Dray at North Water Street Gallery

 

So here's a thing. Grateful to Jeff Ingram of the North Water Street Gallery in Kent, Oh. for setting this up. Jeff was actually the first person to show one of my pictures in a gallery outside of a school event way back in 1999...or was it 1997? Either way, great guy who runs an excellent community arts organization called Standing Rock Cultural Arts. 

Check them out online at: https://www.standingrock.net/

"Copy of Klee's 'Vogel Garten'" by Nate Dray with Commentary on Paul Klee

"Copy of Klee's 'Vogel Garten'" 

mixed media on newspaper on cardboard, 31 x 40 inches.

I love Paul Klee. Brilliant designer. Unsurpassed stylist. A very special human being. I worked through the better part of his notebooks and Bauhaus lessons and while I'm not saying it was a complete waste of time, it was almost a complete waste of time. Not sure if he was a hustler or was sincerely attempting to document and explain his process in earnest technically, but the teachings amount to a whole lot of psuedo-intellectual hot air. Couched in exclusivity jargon and fancy terms for brick-simple concepts, the bulk of the materials aren't worth the time for a person trying to improve his or her craft. People claiming his writings on Art are on par with da Vinci are lying or confused. Whereas da Vinci informed generations of not just artists and craftspeople but also engineers and technicians, Klee's writings are thousands of pages the end result of which can be better internalized by understanding the golden mean and a brief survey of his artist's statement/manifesto. Or better yet, study his pictures. I imagine it was a combination of needing to justify his approach and teaching position, keep pace with the intelligentsia fashions of pre-Great War Germany and fill time when asked to speak publicly on his work that led to his prodigious overly complex prose. That or he was sincere and extremely neurotic. His math exercises take the student on long tedious journeys of arithmetic that end up illustrating principles that if not patently obvious or intuitively graspable are demonstrable by considerably more direct and simple means. That and they aren't particularly helpful to a person trying to improve his or her design powers.

Regardless, he's great. My favorite of the...whaddya call it? Was he Cubist or Expressionist? Whatever. I'm glad he defies classification. That's a hallmark of Quality, in my humble opinion.

Oh, also, like Klee, I made this frame by hand for the painting and the mat area is part of the painting itself. Note that the original is around 10.5" x 15.5" whereas my loose interpretive copy is a bit bigger at 31 x 40 inches. It hangs in my home above the landing on the stairs.

Nate Dray Illustration: "The ALBUM Psi-Witch"

 The ALBUM "Psi-Witch" 

by me for ALBUM

Nate Dray paints: "The American Schematic" an abstract design by artist Nate Dray

 "The American Schematic"

watercolor, ink & gouache on paper, 15 x 20 inches

Wars of Beleriand board game. The Silmarillion wargame.

 Wars of Beleriand board game. The Silmarillion wargame.  

However you want to say it...

This is the rulebook for a sort of late stage playtest copy of the unpublishable Silmarillion board game I designed. There are just two of them and they are each unique one-of-a-kind handmade prints. The rulebook itself is 136 pages divided into 53 sections. It uses a case system for easy reference. The game maps are printed on canvas (again, two of them, each unique), maybe not the best choice of materials, tbh.There are a few hundred counters and chits and markers and some card chart thingies too. It's a two-player game. One side is the Noldor and co. and the other player is Morgoth and all his baddies. It's asymmetrical in that each player plays a very different game. 

But this is as far as it goes. All the components are stand-in roughs. Lots of hand drawn things and visible corrections. Also some blatantly swiped graphics including a piece by Tolkien himself, a John Howe and the cover of the Ronnie James Dio album "Lock Up the Wolves."

Though unpublishable, I would like people to know that someone made a quasi-simulation of the Silmarillion in the hex and counter form of tabletop game. It's 20 turns long. And Nienor is in there somewhere too. 

And now it goes in a box on a shelf until the year 2090 or something.

Appalachian Woods & Trails, small ink and watercolor illustrations by artist Nate Dray

 Some playing card size ink & watercolor drawings of nearby woods and trails. 

Nate Dray watercolor painting: "Over Lincoln Highway"

 

"Over Lincoln Highway"

by Nate Dray

watercolor on paper, 17 x 22 inches

 

"Wars of Beleriand." The Silmarillion board game designed by game artist Nate Dray

Wars of Beleriand.

The Silmarillion board game, aka WOB.

Or...The Dispossessed.

Anyway.

Another unusual and interesting (to me) situation. 

I was playing as Morgoth and my opponent marched Thingol and a sizable host of Sindar out into the open onto Anfauglith and sort of left them there, sitting ducks. They were annihilated and when Thingol dies in WOB, Melian follows (though no VPs are awarded to the MorP for Melian's elimination under these circumstances).

Consequently, with no Melian deployed on the Game Map, the Fence of Doriath (or Girdle of Melian) is deactivated and we see here a very lonely Luthien (the Luthien counter is under the city marker) all by herself in Menegroth with only an adjacent Galadriel unit to keep her company. The Edain haven't arrived yet (this is Turn 7) and it's just an unusual situation that amuses me. Shows the value in having diversity in playtesters. 

I would never have allowed this to happen as the Noldor Player, but I am pleased that it did happen. 

 

 

"One of the Watcherwoman's Clock-Trees" ink illustration by Nate Dray

"One of the Watcherwoman's Clock-Trees"

ink on paper

Illustration of a type of tree found in Lev Grossman's book series "The Magicians."

"From Star Trek's 'Mirror Mirror'" - Star Trek the Original Series illustrations by Nate Dray

"From Star Trek's 'Mirror Mirror'"

--Sort of revisiting the theme from "The Enemy Within." 

"Just Outside Town"