A Croc lost at the age of three inspires a painting about all the different places it could have traveled.

Junior Nate Korn-Meyer enjoys drawing, painting and digital design. Though Korn-Meyer has established himself as a talented artist, he always seeks to go the extra mile.

Korn-Meyer began doing art when he was seven years old and is inspired by many art creators online.

“There are a bunch of YouTubers that I like to watch. One of them is Jazza. He inspired me a lot,” Korn-Meyer said.

He currently practices realism and a “cartoony” art style. He has taken many art classes in and outside of school at various times in his life that have all influenced his style.

“A class that I did at MassArt over the summer was drawing intensive,” Korn-Meyer said. “I think my fundamental drawing got a lot better from that class.”

He also enjoys several other activities that are similar in nature to art.

“I would say what biking, swimming and art all have in common is that they are very peaceful and give me time to sort my thoughts out,” Korn-Meyer said.

Completing a piece is not as simple as one might think. Even when beginning a drawing, there is much work to be done.

“I’ll be running through stuff in my head and then once I find a few things that I like, I’ll do mini sketches called thumbnail sketches, just planning out composition and content and stuff,” Korn-Meyer said. “From there, I usually go into the final piece and then start with sketching. Depending on the medium, then [I’ll] move on to painting or something like that.”

Korn-Meyer is currently enrolled in the Advanced Portfolio Development class, taught by Elizabeth Brennan, in which students are given a large amount of artistic freedom and ability to express messages through their work.

“The students get a prompt from me, and they solve it however they want. Nate actually did this really great drawing of a mechanical horse,” Brennan said. “I think in the course of that he was able to explore his interest, and he talked about the connection between the horse and a mustang car which I thought was very interesting. So I think that he brings himself to his work.”

According to Brennan, Korn-Meyer has shown that he is an artist who constantly challenges himself.

“I see him as being a student that is embracing that idea that, for true growth, you want to be slightly uncomfortable,” Brennan said.

His skills are most clearly shown in one of his recent works, a drawing of a mechanical horse, according to Eric Latimer, Korn-Meyer’s 9th grade Digital Animation and Storytelling class and 10th grade Animation class teacher.

“There’s a warmth in something about the texture in his work. I enjoy the open spaces. The context, if you notice the way he handled that, that too is kind of interesting, that too isn’t just a plain boring color, he took some time to imply texture, so for all these reasons I’m really impressed,” Latimer said.

According to Brennan, Korn-Meyer is ready to further challenge himself in terms of his art.

“I first met Nate at the end of last year when he came to ask if he could be in the Advanced Portfolio Development class,” Brennan said. “After looking at his work I felt like he was technically ready for the challenge. I think he’s got some strong base skill sets and he’s ready for being pushed a little bit more.”