Art & Life with Ryan Crain

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Crain.

Ryan, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I have been an artist for my entire life and always knew since I was very young that is what I would do with my life. My father is a creative guy, and I remember seeing him create things for fun as a kid, and I knew that is something that I wanted to turn into a career. As a child of the 80’s, I was very much into pop culture along with Movies and TV from that era. After graduating high school, I moved from the San Fransisco Bay Area to Tempe and majored in art at Arizona State University. After ASU I enrolled at the Art Institute and obtained my second bachelor’s degree in art and design. From there I was hired by a Scottsdale ad agency where I remained for years until I moved back to Northern California in 2007 where I met my wife and remained for seven years until moving back to Arizona in 2013.

This is where my art career really started to blossom and when I found my true passion for art. My love of art and movies came together, and I started creating movie posters for fun. After a short time of doing this for fun, I was approached by one of the top entertainment marketing companies in Hollywood. I tested with them and was offered my dream job-making movie and television posters, however, I was at a crossroads. I really did not want to live in SoCal and wanted to return to Arizona, so with a heavy heart I turned down the job. I then took a position with an ad agency in Tempe and thought my entertainment career was over.

I continued to practice in my free time and started a strong social media campaign to get my work out to the eye’s of the world. in a year I had obtained 65,000 FB followers and started to connect with other artist and filmmakers from around the world. I was being asked to do more and more work around the world, so I started my own company on the side, Ryan Crain Design. I currently still have a day job and am a partner in a Branding and Product development company called Vigor Partner Enterprises. I still do a lot of freelance work for companies from all over the world, and I still get to live my dream of creating entertainment imagery for Netflix, HBO, FOX, PBS, OWN, TRUtv and many more.

I truly feel blessed to be able to do what I love for a living, a lot of my friends make more money than I do but I doubt they can say they love their jobs. Being able to have a presence in the entertainment industry on my terms, really is being able to “Have my cake and eat it too.”

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My life in art started out in the fine art world with a heavy interest in drawing and painting. My sophomore year of high school was when my life changed forever, I took an elective class when I was introduced to Photoshop. A few local art professionals came into class and showed us how they used the software in their art, and I was hooked.

I know several different programs and use them daily, but I have truly dedicated my life to becoming a Photoshop expert. My mind’s eye and extensive knowledge of the program allows me the freedom to basically create whatever I can think of. I am very critical of my art and am my own worst critic, so when a piece turns out how I envisioned it in my mind I know, I did a good job. I am constantly trying to outdo what I did previously, in order to continue growing as an artist and not become complacent in my craft.

All my art is, and my best pieces start out with a great idea and a cool shot or shots. Sometimes just a cool pose or certain lighting setup spawns amazing images in my head which I then translate into reality. My favorite part of being an artist is being able to make something from nothing. My goal is to create something that can strike a nerve or trigger an emotion in the viewer, whether it’s fear, sadness, love, laughter, etc. Evoking a reaction from the viewer is what I am after, in this face paced image-saturated world. If I can get them to stop what they are doing for 5 seconds to look at my creation then I know I have achieved my mission.

I specialize in creating relevant visual communication materials that are catered to a particular product, service or event. My areas of expertise ranges from branding, social media, print, and digital ads, to product development and everything in between. While accomplished in a wide array of design mediums, creating exciting, eye-catching imagery for the entertainment TV and Film industry is my true passion. I have worked on projects like “The Matrix,” “Hellraiser,” “Silicon Valley,” “Wahlburgers,” HBP’s VICE,” and Netflix original programming, among others.

What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
I have never experienced this feeling, but I can definitely see how some artists can claim to have this emotion. Art is usually a very personal and isolated process, I would think this is more prevalent in fine art vs. commercial. I am an only child and have been alone a lot in my life, so maybe that is why it doesn’t affect me as much as others?

In this day of social media, I would say that is the best vehicle to get your art out into the world and to also get creative feedback and make new connections in the art community. I have had so much exposure on social media as well as obtaining a fair amount of paid work from it.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
You can see my work on my website ryancraindesign.com or on my Facebook and Instagram pages under Ryan Crain Design

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ryancraindesign.com
• Email: rcrain98@hotmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryancraindesign
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RyanCrainDesignArtist

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