Nathan Hoste

Known alternatively as Ghoste, Nathan Hoste is a designer and illustrator that creates illustrations varying from textbook diagrams to wild post-apocolyptic visions of travel, to surreal caricatures of celebrities. His brilliant use of perspective and colour give his images an energy rarely achieved.

How did you start off designing and illustrating? Have you always been artistically inclined?

I don’t think I was ever not into illustrating. My childhood dream, in fact, was to be a garbage man. If that didn’t pan out, I’d be an artist. So, in preparation for being turned down by the sanitation engineering truck-driver’s union, I was always drawing the characters (or myself as the characters) from the great cartoons we had in the late 80s/ early 90s. When it came time to apply for college, I never really even considered anything but art schools. I mean, it’s a disappointment that I’m not Darkwing Duck, but there’s still time to get dangerous.

Space is a big theme in your artwork. What draws you to this type of imagery?

Yeah space and the ocean and the open desert and being alone in the middle of any of those is something I think about a lot. I sit there and think about those things. If you can tell me why I’ll give you a psychology degree.

-Would you say there’s any reflection of your feelings or social commentary in these types of images, or is it just because it looks cool?

I’m for sure drawn to the aesthetic of a thing in the midst of nothing. Whether they’re there or not, somethings you’ll never catch me fessing up to are A) putting social commentary in my images and B) having feelings. In terms of an audience, though, it’s all about what you get out of it, not necessarily what I put into it, I think.

Similarly, a lot of pop culture references make appearances in your work, especially star trek. Would you describe yourself as a geek or tv/movie buff?

Well, I have made a few pictures of Riker from Star Trek, and let’s not kid ourselves– I’ll probably make more. Things like those and the American Psycho/Dexter image are fun to do, but not something I’m going to pursue very often. No one will be able to top Brandon Bird when it comes to things such as those. It’s not even that I’m obsessed with a thing… I do like The Next Generation and I’ll watch it every now and then, but I really don’t watch much TV or even that many movies. Now that’s going to sound like a lie when I say that one day I guess I just wouldn’t shut up about Commander Riker until a friend asked why I didn’t just start making Riker fanart. I’m going to mail Jonathan Frakes a copy and I’ll post about it when I get a reply.

Who has inspired you artistically?

Everybody has. I browse a lot of art forums and such, just looking at what other people are doing. It’s not that I’ll find a really awesome image and be all "Man, I gotta make something like that," but rather that I’ll see a really awesome image and get all excited to come up with something of my own. I keep a morgue folder on my desktop of saved pictures to look through if I need some motivation. Paintings, drawings, photos, anything. Not even just pictures, though: Scientific concepts inspire me a lot, and I think that’s going to come out more in the next few months, at least.

As far as a real answer to the question, though, Dave McKean is pretty great.

-Would you mind sharing some of these other sites for viewers looking for inspiration?

I’m really bad at keeping up on updates from blogs and such. I’ll come across one and read through the backlog of posts then never visit it again. A site I do visit periodically, though, is conceptart.org, which probably everyone knows about already. You get a pretty good mix of stuff in the forums there, despite the main theme of the site. The trick is to poke around the actual sites of the artists you like that you find there. Some advice: If you’re going to save images to your morgue, I recommend you rename the file to include the name of the artist, if it’s not there already. It’ll save you lots of time if you didn’t bookmark their portfolio.

Is there any particular kind of art you dislike?

Yes, most of it, haha but this is dangerous ground here; a slippery slope to getting into a discussion of "what is art?" that I loathe. Sometimes I want to distance myself from the word "art" and just call myself an illustrator or a person. But I’ll go the safe route here and say "anime." Like anything, most of it is garbage and some of it is great. I just think the anime aesthetic is too influential at the moment, at least in kids’ media. It’s stifling.

On another note, the concept of "style" is something that bothers me. "Whoa dude love your style", "I’m a beginner just trying to find my style," things like that. People seem so concerned with having their own style that I feel they confine themselves, artistically, and end up emulating themselves again and again. I value adaptability– creating the image in the way that will best suit the idea.

A lot of your artwork makes great use of textures and materials. Do you usually create all the elements in your images, or use stock imagery?

I like to make them myself, but that’s not to say I haven’t used texture galleries before. They’re really convenient if you know what you’re looking for and don’t have the option to go hunting yourself. Sometimes I’ll just take a day to go and photograph textures, but I like it the most if I make watercolor or paint or inkwash textures. I’ve been doing a lot of compositing in the computer, lately, but I still like most of the elements to come from traditional techniques.

Do you work, or hope to work in the design industry?

I’m working right now for an independent videogame developer. We make educational games for kids, kinda like Oregon Trail, but extreme.

Finally, Do you hope to continue with your artwork in the future?

Oh for sure. I get home from work, where I’ve been drawing or doing whatever all day, and sit down at my desk and do more. I’ve been working on a graphic novel in my free time for a couple years and I’m hoping to finish that up in the next year or two. With any luck I’d be able to find a publisher for it and start on a couple of the other ideas I’ve got bouncing around. With no luck, I’ll just release it myself and do those other stories anyhow.

Thanks for taking the time.

You can see Nathan’s other work on his website!