Plein Air Art Podcast · PleinAir Magazine

Plein Air Podcast 269: Nathan Fowkes

·1 hr 20 min·5 clips

Nathan says he would have been fired "on the spot" without the thousands of studies he had done.

1. Plein Air Art Podcast episode 269 centers on Nathan Fowkes and his approach to plein air painting, gouache, and visual storytelling. 2. Eric Rhodes hosts the conversation as publisher and founder of Plein Air Magazine, and Nathan Fowkes appears as a concept artist, teacher, author, and plein air painter. 3. The episode asks what gives a painting purpose, drama, and emotional force when the artist has only a short time outdoors. 4. Nathan says he got rid of television, worked 60 to 80 hours a week, and made thousands of small studies to improve. 5. He attended the Art Center College of Design and then worked in theme park show design, including projects for Universal and theme parks in Japan. 6. Nathan describes going to DreamWorks with a portfolio and landing an assignment for The Prince of Egypt without realizing how advanced it was. 7. He explains that he was given color keys for the Royal Banquet sequence, which the studio used to guide the rest of the production. 8. Nathan says the color keys matched the small studies he had been doing for years from life, imagination, references, and master studies. 9. Eric links that discipline to Kevin McPherson's advice about doing 1,000 plein air studies of 20 or 30 minutes each. 10. Nathan says the core of a picture is purpose, which comes from unifying trees, land, water, and sky around one visual idea. 11. He argues that "what you don't paint" creates purpose because omission clears away distractions. 12. Nathan says people do not care that he is a nice person or accurate draftsman; they care about the experience the image gives them. 13. He says the value of an artist, including his current Netflix work, is creating an emotional experience that audiences cannot get elsewhere. 14. Nathan describes how animation taught him visual language for emotions such as happiness, sorrow, anger, and adventure. 15. He uses How to Train Your Dragon to explain how shape language and monochrome design can shift the feeling of a story. 16. He compares that to plein air painting at the Grand Tetons, where diagonal trees and craggy mountains can turn a calm view into something ominous. 17. The conversation is conversational, technical, and self-deprecating, with Nathan moving between career anecdotes and practical painting principles. 18. Eric often pushes for definitions and examples, which keeps the discussion grounded in specific assignments, books, and painting situations. 19. Artists interested in plein air painting, gouache, and concept art will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners seeking a tightly structured interview without process details may be less interested.

As heard by us

A landscape can feel unsettled when the composition tips toward motion.

Eric Rhodes spends episode 269 with Nathan Fowkes moving from a year of travel, painting events, a museum visit, and a month in China into a plain lesson about how paintings shape mood.

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Why you'd press play

Nathan Fowkes on why a peaceful landscape can read as tense.

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