The Mind Behind Northern VA's Talent NastySterling
Virginia based designer/photographer but also creator of "a lot of shit in general in terms of art", Nastysterling began just working with friends, one being a RYB featured artist Orion. Originally born in California and raised in LA, it's easy to see the influence of both western and eastern cultures in his work. His creative journey began organically and his creativity is still forming, but his overall aesthetic is one of its own.
RYB: How did you get into graphics and photography?
NS: I had a family member show me what photoshop was like a little bit before I was in middle school he showed me what it was and I just started fucking around with it during middle school and from then on I progressively got more into designing. It's weird I didn't get to see the guy who showed me photoshop again for years until like a week or two ago and it was really awkward and weird so I didn't say much to him. I got into photo because my brother was way into skate culture when we were younger and I would watch skate videos with him but I couldn't really skate well since I'm very clumsy and shit so I saw dudes in the videos taking photos and realized that it was a way I could be involved without being good at skating, also I thought at a young age I'd get more girls being a photographer but that was a really stupid thought now that I look back at it.
RYB: Describe your creative process when editing photo's?
NS: I usually shoot in RAW when I'm doing digital photos and import them to photoshop and basically see if white balancing will either help or hurt the photo I want. Sometimes I use it and the end result is really good and there are other times where it just kills the colors and it ruins it. So I just do that 90% of the time and the rest of the 10% I won't get the end product I wanted and it just bums me out and I won't touch my photos or anything for like a couple days.
RYB: You mentioned that you've been getting into film photography. What qualities of film photography do you enjoy more than modern digital photography?
NS: I got into film because a lot of the dudes I looked up to would travel or just hang out and take disposable cameras and the end result looked sick with just warmer tones and more organic and natural colors and they would post these pics online and I'd just be like damn why doesn't my shit look as homegrown and just personal like their photos are. Another part was just the more I took photos with my DSLR I felt like it was more of a job type thing even at fun events it felt like I wasn't enjoying myself and I was more focused on getting a good shot so I waste all these opportunities where I should be having fun when I shoot digitally. I copped a MJU-2 from Olympus off s suggestion and now I can just pop that out for a quick second take a pic and it will look nice then continue to have fun or whatever.
RYB: How do colors influence your work and how important is color to your craft?
NS: I think that all these famous photographers in the mainstream aren't very interesting to me because a lot of their works are journalistic or sports photography and it's like cool I guess but to me a photo with more colors popping out taken by some random dude at a concert or in a city gets more looks from me than a portrait of a president or celebrity.
RYB: What are some of your favorite colors to use in your work?
NS: I've been on my orange and yellow wave recently I'm gonna paint my room orange when I stop being lazy. I'm working on a little photo zine the cover is purple with yellow font and I just look at it and think how sick this cover is.
RYB: How would you define color theory as a graphic designer and photographer?
NS: I think that knowing which colors complement each other is really important for a general designer I guess it's really hard to pull off random sporadic type colors in my opinion. To me I don't really pay too much attention to too many rules and guidelines of design but that's because it's a little hard for me to accept those concepts and hold them down.
As a photographer I guess it's harder to define that since I'm not a big portrait/studio person since I don't have those resources right now. I definitely want to do crazy shoots with lights I would definitely prioritize having my color right though and then maybe some weird type props.
RYB: Who are your favorite artists right now? (Any medium)
NS: Ben Frost is dope I've been into stencils for years now he's got cool concepts. Yamane Yoshitake is super dope off his late 80s early 90s anime vibes with vivid colors. I've been obsessed with Shintaro Kago for the past years like I saw some of his art when I was in middle school and like since his subject matter is sex and violence I felt grossed out but as I grew up I got desensitized to it he still does some art that's a little gross to me but it's whatever same with Suehiro Maruo but he's got a more detailed and experienced style.
In terms of music I just been bumping a lot of grime like Skepta, Section Boyz, Nafe Smallz and just like Lil Uzi Vert and some other stuff I can't really recall it since I switch it up a lot.
One of my biggest inspirations this past year pretty much is one of my favorite directors Sion Sono. His movies are all about deeper meanings through unconventional ways like a movie will look weird but then you realize there are like 100 deeper messages. I been writing about his movies recently and what I took away from them I'll never show anyone what I wrote though shits kinda personal and embarrassing. I watched his 4 hour long movie like a week ago and got super inspired the only thing is that he doesn't make too many happy movies and I feel like complete shit after watching them so I won't work on stuff for a couple days after watching his movies.