Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Downs.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember. All throughout my schooling, I’ve been the ‘artsy kid’. Luckily my parents noticed this at a pretty early age and enrolled me in Saturday morning art classes, which of course as a kid, I never really appreciated. I learned how to control pencils, pens, brushes, and even clay in these formative years and even after I stopped attending the classes around junior high school, I was still very involved in art throughout high school.
Things changed in college, where through a series of decisions, I decided to pursue a parallel career in creative advertising and design. I work now as a designer, but I felt a need to start creating without the rigor and structure of what I was required to do in my day to day work. I started doodling on 3×3 sticky notes as part of an exercise with co-workers. Each day someone would come up with a theme, and everyone would post their interpretation of it, the only rule being it had to be contained within the sticky note. I’m not overexaggerating when I say that this totally reinvigorated my passion for art and illustration and over the course of a year or so, I found myself drawing recreationally like I’d been doing for so long before that.
After having posted regularly on Instagram for a few months, I was invited to exhibit and vend at an art show in the Austin area, something I was totally unprepared for but also completely willing to get prepared for. Ever since that show, I’ve continued to post new works regularly online, continue vending at art shows, and carving out dedicated time to work on my craft. Thank goodness for sticky notes, yeah?
Please tell us about your art.
I primarily work in two styles of artwork: fine pen and ink illustrations and also a more leisurely comic book style. I like to infuse humor in my artwork, in particular the comic book style. With everything going on in the world today, I feel like people need more laughter in their day to day lives and if my art can even illicit so much as a smirk on someone’s face, I feel like I did good work.
My more complex illustrations are usually of animals or other things occurring in nature. A lot of the interactions people have these days are through screens and technology. I think the diversity of objects and animals in nature are incredibly fascinating, and I am continually inspired and invigorated by seeing and experiencing it.
I also like the challenge of using very simple tools or techniques to create complex imagery, which is why I enjoy working in black and white. Pulling out the smallest details or laying down just the right amount of lines to create an image is exhilarating to me and is a constant reminder that less can be more. In conclusion, I use my art to inspire laughter and humor, to see something beyond the perfect lines of a computer or software-rendered piece of art, and to remind people that it doesn’t take a whole tool belt to create something memorable.
We often hear from artists that being an artist can be lonely. Any advice for those looking to connect with other artists?
I’ve found that artists love to share! Don’t be afraid to ask questions and put yourself out there. Don’t wait until things are perfect or for “just the right moment” because it’s not coming. Get out in front of people and you’re going to be very surprised how much support you can muster in a pretty short amount of time!
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My work can be found online at my website: www.ryan-downs.com My Instagram: @arrdo And I sell prints and stickers at my online shop: https://ryandowns.bigcartel.com/products. I also vend around the greater Austin area at art and craft fairs. To sign up for my mailing list to receive notification of where I’ll be showing or what new artworks I have available, I have a monthly newsletter that you can sign up for here: https://bit.ly/2JkUyDa
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ryan-downs.com
- Email: contact@ryan-downs.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/arrdo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryandownsillustration
- Other: https://ryandowns.bigcartel.com/products
Image Credit:
All images are my own
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