Check out Ryan Quackenbush’s Artwork

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

Ryan, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’ve been drawing my whole life, pretty much. It started with copying pictures and cartoons of whatever I could find. Comics were huge to me. Pop culture, in general, was huge to me. Lots of superheroes, lots of dinosaurs, lots of drawings of “The Crow.” (I had a brief hot topic-y phase in 6th grade). It just never left. Lots of my friends drew and they all stopped at some point but I never did. For as long as I can remember it’s been important to me. I’ve never not had a sketch pad going.

During high school I remember wanting to work for big movie studios and wanting to be around movies, and I still do, but then that’s what I wanted the most. Whatever it took. And I never even took any art classes up to this point even though it was what I loved the most. I didn’t take any classes until life drawing at community college because I knew that any artist worth their salt had to take life drawing classes. They’re still my favorite classes to take and everyone really should take some. Eventually I decided to go to the Art Institute here in Phoenix because it was close and what I can reasonably go to. I went for Animation and enjoyed it for the most part. There weren’t nearly enough drawing classes for my taste but I liked the students and teachers and had a good time. I think most importantly I learned I didn’t want to do 3D animation anymore. It just didn’t catch me like drawing did.

After school I took a number of crappy jobs for crappy people, none of which paid off but I’m glad I went through it when I was young because now would’ve been too hard. Gradually I took some local jobs here and there, nothing too much. I explored digital matte painting, which I still love, and got a little work doing those. Always paired with a day job.

One year I tabled with a couple friends at the Phoenix Comicon and I decided to make my own comic book. I really screwed up as far as pricing and getting things together and the whole thing was a mess, really, but I made my own comic and I really liked it. I was also attending a now disbanded local group called Tiny Army who were creators that discussed what to expect at cons and I met my first writer there who I really wanted to work with, Glen. We made a cool comic and I had a blast selling it at the con one year. Ever since then I’ve been primarily focused on making comics, some with writers but mostly on my own, because I got to be in charge. I got to decide my story and direction and production design and everything. There’s been lots of growing pains but I really wouldn’t change anything. It’s all been a part of the journey, I guess.

Now I make weird little stories, ones that I would like to read myself and have gotten to know the comic book scene here and absolutely love it. I can honestly say that I feel most at home around the women and men out there at the conventions and life drawing classes and I am slowly but surely making my way through it. Hopefully forwards and upwards.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I make my own comic books. For the most part they’re kind of bleak little stories with only a few happy endings in sight. Everything so far that I’ve made has been one-shot stories, just one-off comics that start and end within the one issue. Everything that appeals to me in life is absorbed into comic books. Illustrators, artists, movie directors, anyone who’s a bit off or anyone who does things their own way and doesn’t create things that might be considered super marketable. I like making the stories that I would want to read myself, that I would be proud of rather than chasing the flavor of the day.

I also make what I call “mock movie posters.” I just have this huge passion and drive toward doing movie poster art. I love the history of movie posters, I loved trying to capture the feeling that a movie can give you. So occasionally I’ll create my own version of a movie poster of a movie that I personally love and think would make for a good poster that I can do a service for, so to speak. If a movie appeals to my own personal sense of identity, then I feel like creating something for it to claim a little part of that movie for myself. It’s kind of selfish, I think.

I just love pop culture and have never really infused politics or anything like that into what I do, but I do absolutely infuse my own emotions and taste into my work. I really don’t want people to walk away with a good feeling. I don’t have the need to have everything wrapped up neatly. I want people to think about their own sense of self-sabotage and self-destruction like we as people do all the time. Sometimes we get caught up in the fantasy of being the hero, that it really bites us in the end. Or that we make choices knowing that they aren’t the best for us, but we’re compelled to anyway. It’s just all a reflection of what I love in art and the not so real world.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
I can’t really speak from a professional stand point but as far as I can see, it’s both. I think with the amount of art being created and the number of platforms to share it all on, I think it’s become easier in a way to disregard most art and take it less seriously than before. It’s great that there are so many places for artists to have a voice where they didn’t before, but a lot of the time it’s like yelling into a windstorm. Even though these movies and merchandisers are making more money than ever, there seems to be a huge gap between the people who are responsible for creating original art like the superheroes behind these multi-million-dollar movies, and the studios raking it all in. There’s even a fair-sized gap between the actual creators and the people selling bad fan art at shows. I think it’s super important to remember who made them all in the first place. And because art is so easily reproducible and easy to mimic, it’s easy to lose track of those who started things so it’s important that people do the research.

I think there needs to be more openings and opportunities for artists who are not considered professional artists, who don’t have the money to shell out for expensive art classes and workshops. I think a huge help would be to simply employ artists. Make their art feel valuable to themselves. We’ve replaced so many artist jobs with stock photos and bad Photoshop that we’re really missing out. I feel like we’re not creating the urge to grow new, classically trained artists because someone on a computer can “do it quicker and cheaper.” I think using artists to add to magazines, newspapers, and websites and simply keeping us employed it’s a huge motivation for others to see artists actually making a living on what we do.

I also think it’s super important that we don’t give up. It’s easy to get sad about the giant buildings going up around Roosevelt Row and downtown, and I know it feels like we’re being chased out and back into our holes, are we kind of are, but I think reaching out to your small cool group of artist friends and finding those grass root groups doing their own thing is important. I don’t just think the answer is just to have more of it, but to ask more of the artists who are serious about it and to make sure your peers are being held to a higher standard and to make it count out there. That applies to money too. Make sure you get paid, and to stop undercutting your fellow artists. Under-pricing hurts the community. Weeding out the disingenuous is really important.

Make your own small community stronger and teach each other. Honestly, I’m not sure how much help we’re going to be getting from now on. Arts are usually first on the chopping block. So, I would say make each other strong, always be improving, and make your own way and be honest with yourself. No one is going to hand you anything aside from the occasional “decorate the light rail” contest. And remember that Instagram followers don’t equal sales.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Mostly my online presence. Occasionally you can catch me at a show or convention here in town. I don’t do a ton of those. But the best way to support me, or to any of the local comic folks really, is to just pick up our books and check us out. There are countless numbers of people that simply walk by us at shows without even looking at our work so I guess just take the time to talk to us, flip through what we brought and see how much work we put into something so small. I know so many hard-working artists and creators who just get bummed out because we don’t have name recognition and are, in turn, largely ignored at our own comic conventions. Even if you don’t buy anything, just looking is a huge help. At least to me it is.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ryanquackenbush.com
• Phone: 480313664
• Email: ryan.quackenbush@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanquackenbush/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryan.quackenbush.73

Image Credit:
Personal photo taken by Ryan Quackenbush

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