Rob Ryan Artist Research

Rob Ryan Research page

Quote from Rob Ryan- “One day I decided to pick up a scalpel and cut paper instead of drawing on it, so equally I might decide to pick up a paint brush and say “i don't what to do this paper-cut thing anymore’” 

“My favourite project is always the one I’m currently working on. You have to live in the present and try and do the best job you can do at the time”

From his interview in Papercut by Owen Gildersleeve

Quote about him- 

“This is work of immense appeal that celebrates life and the complex emotions that colour our daily experience. “

From spitalfieldslife.com article about him

Why I like his work- I’ve always been drawn to Rob Ryans work, not just because they look so complex and impressively detailed (although they do) but because of the way he incorporates words and phrases into his work in such a seamless and beautiful way. His work is already strong on narrative but adding the words gives it all a fairytale feeling that I think is hard to find anywhere else. The ease with which he does this is amazing too, when asked where he gets the inspiration for his words and poems in his art he simply said “Just from my life”. I think this shows firstly what an imaginative person he is that he doesn’t use any pre-existing fairytales or stories to draw from, he just comes up with it himself. And secondly how emotionally driven his pieces are that all the experiences in his work are so personal and special to him, I think this really comes through in the work and makes it a more organic and natural feeling experience. 

How do they make their work- In the afore mentioned Papercut interview he said he starts his process off by taking lots of notes and doodling from the offset as the ideas come to him. He then gathers all these loose threads of ideas and begins to assemble them into the beginnings of a final image, then drawing and sketching and allowing himself to change his mind you can see that he has quite a free thinking process to his work. Then the final thing is cut out and sprayed, which I found out through this research, he only ever works onto white paper, which after its been cut is then sprayed to be the final colour. I found this really interesting as I’ve tried to replicate small papercuts similar to his on coloured paper and its never worked out that well as the paper looks frayed or some white bits show, but this is such a simple idea I don’t know why it didn’t seem more obvious.

Overarching themes I feel inform their practice- This is a difficult one to answer but in an interview with Katie at confessionsofadesigngeek.com he said that his inspiration comes from his imagination, as well as anything and everything. He has also said what originally drew him to paper cutting was seeing Tyrolean works of pastoral scenes that were folded and opened up into a symmetrical picture. So as previously mentioned, he dreams up a lot of what goes into his work, but from looking at his work, from his book This Is For You, to his trilogy of children books (all of which I own and cherish), the general feeling I get is one of emotion, family and deep life experiences. I think one of the reasons his work inspires me so much is that I think we think in a very similar way, from what I can tell were both very self reflective, a little bit sensitive and maybe too emotional at times. It sounds so self indulgent but its really nice to see someone that uses the same scattered thought process as me get their ideas down in such a cohesive way. He talks a lot about his childhood (presumably his) in this is for you and his mother and father, his work seems to be almost a record of his life and this is why I feel it works so well, because who better to draw experience and material from than yourself who you know so well. 

He has collaborated with many people and organisations such as Yorkshire Sculpture Park, F- troupe, pure radio and eastpak. He also has had his work featured on the covers of Stylist, Vogue Australia and In Style. He does exhibitions at his shop in London called RyanTown and also sells a massive range of products there too, being quoted in Papercut as saying “I make my products because I want people who like my work to have a decent slice of it, even if they haven’t got a big budget. 

How they relate to me and what I want to do- Rob Ryans main use of media is paper cut which is something I have experimented with mainly through collage and found its something I really enjoy doing, he also uses a lot of words, phrases and poems in his work, which is something that appeals to me as I’ve been writing scraps of writing for most of my life and always enjoy poetry. His strong sense of narrative also really appeals to me and is something that drew me into his work to start with, his images tells story which is easy to relate to.

Analysis Of An Image

Today I came across this image by a duo of illustrators who I've been following for a while called 'The Sad Ghost Club'. They talk a lot about mental health and hold all sorts of events and make images to raise awareness and give support to those who need it. Their images are usually very simple and use clean lines so their images don't take too much emphasis away from the text that accompanies it. 

Context-
Purpose: The purpose of this particular image is to go up on their blog about mental health, possibly to make other people suffering feel like their not alone.
Problem: The problem would be that there is people who suffer from the problems being talked about in the comic strip, and its important to make that more accessible and therefore more understandable to people.
Audience: The audience could be anyone on their facebook page, people who follow them avidly (like me), or people that come across their work once its been shared by a friend.
Reason: This image was made to comfort and to find common ground between people.
Client: This image went up on the clubs blog, facebook and instagram and wasn't made for any particular campaign or project so I guess the client is themselves. 

Image-
Visual: The visual that we see is a single page spread, a comic style layout in simple windows with text to accompany it
Aesthetic: Very simple and clean lines so as not to over-complicate, maybe used in this case so as not to stress the reader further? The light colours also contrast the slightly dim subject matter nicely
Art Work: The art work fits the clubs 'house style' and features their classic sad ghost character. This makes it feel really familiar and relatable if you've ever seen and identified with their work before
Form: Although simple lines make up most of the image, there is also a fair amount of other mark making taking place, such as crosshatching and shading. This gives the image a little more texture and backbone.
Picture: This image choses not to portray no facial imagery which I think is very crucial to the message of this picture, maybe because it helps the viewer to image the situation is directly applying to them. 

Idea-
Concept: The concept behind this image is to help those suffering from this problem identify with it and realise that other people are feeling the same way and that its ok, I feel it does this really well as the image itself is not overcomplicated or dramatised
Meaning: The meaning of the image is that whatever you're doing is enough, and its ok to want to get to a particular place or situation for a really long time and them feel over whelmed when you do get there
Tone of voice: If I had to give this image a character I'd say its quiet and understated, its the equivalent of a friend pulling to side of a room and asking you in private if you're ok. This is so that people seeing this image will not feel hesitant to ask the club/organisation for help
Communication: This image communicates its sympathetic message in a really gentle way which is suitable for the context in which it fits, however I would say that the colours and composition make it feel a little melancholy which, although it fits the theme being discussed, could have an adverse affect when trying to convince people to seek help
Authorship: Being a long time fan of the sad ghost club I can immediately tell this is one of their comics, although I do feel that even if you didn't know as much about them as me, you would still get the feeling that this is something that is aimed towards more vulnerable people, however, as they have made the choice to not show their ghost characters face, I feel this image doesn't have the strongest sense of authorship of some of their other images.