Visual Artist and Creative Technologist
Art direction, illustration, and technical production. Fifteen years in games, AAA titles to studio leadership.
Penn Game Studios · 2021-2026
Studio Art Director
Led a seven-person team across art, animation, and tech art. Defined visual direction, built the pipelines that got art into the engine, and worked directly with engineers, designers, and outsource partners to ship on a monthly cadence, usually across four to five titles at once.
HitPoint Studios · 2017-2021
Lead Artist
Concept art and production art for original titles, licensed IP (including an official Star Wars web game), toys, and physical products. On Venture Valley, an award-winning multiplayer business sim, I was the hands-on lead across characters, environments, 3D, animation, and UI, and the keeper of the game's visual consistency across team and outsource work.
Rockstar Games · 2011-2020
Illustrator
Marketing and in-game illustration for GTA V, GTA Online, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Max Payne 3 on the R* Art Team in NYC. I also rebuilt how we sourced our art reference, replacing slow, off-model reference hunting with a real-time 3D workflow. Faster, more accurate, and still in use there more than a decade later. Since 2020, I've done seasonal Apex Legends key art as an independent illustrator with Anthrox Studio.
From the LinkedIn recommendations
“What set Nate apart was the breadth of what he actually knew how to do. Illustration, game engines, animation tools, production pipelines, he was fluent across all of it, and he used that fluency to lead by example.”
“Nate is the person every studio not-so-secretly depends on and doesn't fully appreciate until he takes a vacation.”
“He wasn't handing things off and hoping for the best. He was in there with us, and his UI/UX instincts are as sharp as anyone I've worked with. His art is incredible, but it's the combination of that craft with real technical and design understanding that makes him stand out.”
Like most of us, I drew a lot as a kid. Unlike most of us, I never stopped. I've been making art for as long as I can remember, and have been doing it professionally for over 20 years. In that time, I've hoarded a ton of skills: illustration, game development, graphic design, branding, web development, video editing, storyboarding... If it's creative and art-related, I want to learn how to do it, especially if it involves new technology.
I'm comfortable jumping in and creating animation, 3D models, UI, VFX, whatever the project needs. I love solving problems. And my favorite thing is building things with creative people who are good at what they do.
BFA Illustration, School of Visual Arts, 2010
2003 — PRESENT
Freelance
2021 — 2026
PENN Game Studios
2017 — 2021
HitPoint Studios
2011 — 2017
Rockstar Games
