Graphic Artist Naturel Talks About His Art & Offers Free Artwork as Giveaway

With many of today’s artists bringing back the “art” in their music’s cover art, one artists in particular is finding himself leading the charge when it comes creating artwork inspired by the music. Artist Naturel, aka Lawrence Atoigue, has let his everyday soundtrack help him decide what his next master piece will be. Having created works inspired by the likes of Kanye West, 2Pac, Kendrick Lamar and many others, we spoke with DC-based artists on his inspirations, thoughts on one of last year’s most discussed album covers, Kanye West’s Yeezus and other topics.

In addition to speaking to us about his work, Naturel has also teamed together with us and offered up one of his limited edition artworks as a free giveaway. To be entered into drawing to win Naturel’s “Thug Passion” piece (Image #1 in the Gallery), all you have to do is follow both HYPETRAK and Naturel on Instagram and repost the contest image, tagging both accounts. For those interested in checking out more work from Naturel be sure to visit his personal website Allburgundy.com, and for those in Los Angeles, you can currently see some of his work gracing the walls of Jason Markk’s upcoming flagship store in Little Tokyo.

So how has your life been within in these past few months? It seems your celebrity has really started to blow up lately.
Yeah man. The last six months have been really crazy. I never really expected for it to get like this you know?

So how’d you first find your way into art? Was it something you did growing up as a kid?
I grew up in musical house. My father had a band, and he would play records a lot. I would go over and look at them, because I like them too. It used to be old Earth Wind and Fire stuff, Santana, Cameo, Commodores and that type of stuff with highly illustrated art, and to me the music was the art, and the art was the music. I didn’t know what art was, I didn’t know what music was, and that’s really how it started. But I mean, I did go to an art high school and then went on to an art college.

So when did your art transition to what most of us are seeing today?
Maybe about a year and a half ago. And honestly it was basically me just fucking around between projects. I’m a maximalist, and I was studying minimalism for a project and I couldn’t land it like that. I was studying a few people and trying to do stuff with least amount of moves. Then I sat back in between emails and starting trying to draw titties with triangles and that’s kind of how it started.

What made you decide on focusing your work towards more hip-hop related themes?
It was a reactionary thing. I listen to a lot of that music. It would come to me when I’d listen to that stuff and it would just be how I felt. It’s like I’m performing the music with them, expect it’s through still life and patterns. It’s a feeling. I’ll go out and drive around town then hear something on the radio, and then I’ll just go with it. I’ll see things and be like “That looks like a still life.”

Do you have a playlist of tracks you like to listen to when you’re in your creative mindset?

I kind of pick the most ratchetest shit I can find. I’ll start off with some of the new stuff, which is really crazy, like “Move That Dope,” by Future, and move on to something like “Fuck LA,” by ScHoolBoy Q, “Work,” by Ty Dolla $ign and then I’ll move over to “Juicy” by Biggie. I love listening to Reasonable Doubt when I’m in the groove of things. But I mean can listen to almost anything, I can listen to Aaliyah or anything by the A$AP guys, a little of Toro y Moi when it gets late. I love Toro y Moi, but for the most part its ratchetness. For me everything comes back to lyrics, feelings and moods. It makes it easier to associate something that we all know with a visual.

Which makes perfect sense being that your work typically features titles based on lyrics from songs.

A lot of the energy in the art comes from the music. Not trying to put anyone down, but I feel like there’s more of a disposable type of approach when it comes to artwork in the hip hop genre or anything that we listen to out of the hood. Its tough, not too many people put enough thought behind it and it’s not being as instinctual as the music.

Well with that said, one of last year’s most discussed artwork, or lack of, would have to go to Kanye West’s album Yeezus. Can you share your thoughts on it?

Yeah man, I went back and forth on it with the homies. At the time I had done the cover for Illmind’s Beats For Kanye West, which came out before Kanye released the cover, so I had an etch to kind of predict or try to see what he would do. Then he came out with no artwork and I was like “What?!” It threw me for a head fake. But it’s different, and I appreciate people try to do something different and not trying to over achieve. They did kind of appropriate it from somewhere, which isn’t bad, I mean we all appropriate things from different places. But it left a lot up to the imagination. There wasn’t that normal visual association that people would get.

Did you ever check out the leaked Yeezus cover that initially came out? The one with the distorted Jesus piece. If you look at it, you can kind of see similarities in it to the work you’re doing, with the sharp edges and line work. Did it have any influence toward your art?

It really didn’t play a role in the conceptual nature of everything. It was a cool coincidence to see, but it didn’t play a role. I did appreciate it for what it was, you know for the mystique of what it could have been, but I do like the fact that it came in the end without it.

So onto another topic. What are few of your favorite programs and tools to use and how’d you get into them?

It’s mainly adobe illustrator and a Wacom Table. I use my iMac and I roll with it. Those are my primary tools for design. I spent nine years doing fashion design. I worked for companies like Roc-A-Wear, Akademics, G-Unit, Ecko and guys like that, basically earning my stripes. When you’re designing for folks in that tier of fashion, it’s a lot of illustrator and laying out designs and vignettes. That’s why some of my stuff comes out in a vignette, that’s because I never really worked with boarders to hard over the years. That’s where my speed and knowledge for those programs come from.

So now with celebrities like Rihanna, Raekwon, Floyd Mayweather and a bunch of others hitting you up for work, how is it working with public figures and being commissioned by them? How do you go about getting in contact with them and getting their work out?

I got the work to Rihanna through people. But with things happening so quick, I haven’t really been able to get on the road and hand deliver these things like I want to. But I mean they’re getting out to the people like they need to. I have a piece hanging up in Diddy’s office. Floyd Mayweather want’s his portrait done for his house. I’m going to hold off on that until I make it out to Vegas. But getting out and meeting the celebrities is something I’d love to do. I just got to get around to it. I set this precedence for myself where I want to be delivering something everyday. It’s not a pain to do, but traveling and actually doing it is a hard balance.

Explain to us your “Nothing Was The Same” moment. The moment you knew the hard work had really started to pay off and your work was becoming more and more noticed by fans.

Maybe about 8 months ago. At first I dropped all my clients and I was just freelancing for about two years, doing projects for brands here and there. Then I started doing this, and it was always like I could back and pick up another project if I needed to. Then I knew things were starting to blow up when brands started knocking at the door and they would offer to pay me double for their projects and it still wasn’t equaling out to what I was making with my own stuff. Then celebrities starting hitting me up, I started seeing comments on my Instagram, emails and letters from fans saying how inspired they were by my work. It was really humbling. With all that, there’s a responsibility to keep it up. You know, when you’re heroes let you down, or someone who inspires you lets you down, it throws you for loop. I take it for it is, and I really do appreciate it. It’s one of those signs when people start trying to imitate your style and it leads them to get a handle on what they want to do. People have told me their stories of how they’ve encountered my work and it’s crazy.

What’s next? When this trending style of artwork fades where do you think you’ll be? Are there any other styles of work that you also use when creating your work?

I don’t set any rules on content. I just is. There are things that go outside of the music industry that I’ve been working on, but I’m holding on to those things for a later time. People are just now starting to get familiar with everything. I want to get that familiarity with people. I want people to know that I’m just like them. I listen to same kind of music as they do. I eat the same kind of food they do. If they can relate on that level then it’ll be easier for them to accept the more conceptual work. Right now people just want to see something cool, but later on I’ll be able to tell them a story.

If there were any words of wisdom that you could share with aspiring artists what would it be?

Keep your head down and do what you do. What you’re doing might not seem relevant right now, but if you bring the right energy to what you’re doing in your lane, people will come to you for it and you won’t have to go to anyone. Keep at it, no matter what. Know that you’re right and eventually people will start swinging your way and supporting what you’re doing. Do what feels good to you.