#aether zine

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  Cover by Marina Fini Special Edition Issue 9 features exclusive interviews with Marina Fini and Hannah Siegfried, work by Glenda Lissette, Mona Cordes, Corie Denby McGowan, Madge Yang, Talia Laing 10+ more!! There will also be amazing Aether editorials by the talented Kristina Elle, Olimpia Rende, Whatever 21, Mia Sakai and Miu Vermillion. In this issue we will be listing our favourite artists…

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Sean Ryan's drawings are undoubetdly unique and simply beautiful. His humble approach to his art gives his work an honest touch that only someone with such sincerity could create. Check our his first published interview from Aether Issue 2 to find out a bit more about the person behind the internet phenomenon. 

A: So, where are you from and where do you live now?

S: Well, I'm from Liverpool and I currently live in Liverpool, which is an incredibly boring answer, sorry. I spent a few years living in Melbourne, and I loved the art scene there, but my visa expired and I had to return home, where I've remained for the past four years.

A: What inspires you / where do you get your inspiration from?

S: I really like artists that include an element of humour and also art that's not "perfect", so my inspiration comes from people like David Shrigley, Tucker Nichols, Keith Haring, William Steig, Quenton Miller, CM Evans, Saul Steinberg, Joan Cornelia and Nick Gazin, to name a few. Oh, and pretty much anything by Bruce Eric Kaplan and Mike Judge.  

A: Do you study/work? 

S: I currently just have a pretty normal office job working for an online retailer, where I spend my days uploading photos, sending emails and drinking too much coffee.

A: Could you give us an insight into the ideas and origins behind ' badly drawn models ' ?

S: In 2013, I was visiting my parents' house and my Mum had a pile of my old things that she wanted to throw out. Most of it was junk, but I found an old Merlin Premier League 1994 sticker book, which I kept. I don't really know why, but I started to draw the footballers within it, spending about 30 seconds on each one. I uploaded a few to Facebook and, to my shock, people seemed to like them, so I turned it into a project called "badly drawn footballers".

As you can probably guess, I'm pretty unoriginal with my ideas, so "badly drawn footballers" soon turned into other "badly drawn" illustrations. I was looking at Instagram one day and realised just how many followers some models have on there – millions of followers with legions of hard core fans and obsessive fan accounts. So I started drawing models. Most of the models I drew liked what I had drawn (albeit in a slightly bemused way), so it just grew from there, really.

A: What's the dream for you?

S: I'd love to be able to make a living from drawing, but I can't really see that happening any time soon. (Any rich Aether readers want to buy some artwork from a struggling artist?)  

And, if I'm really dreaming, maybe the type of life where I can live in a beach-front property in a warm climate, where I can draw outside in the sun and not sat at my desk wearing two thermal tops in Liverpool.

But in the meantime, I don't know... I really have to think about my dreams a bit more.  

A: Do you do any other type of art/illustration (if so, what is it like and how does it differ to 'badlydrawnmodels'?)

S: I've got a few series based on the "badly drawn" theme. I guess it's pretty embarrassing because it really highlights the fact that all of my endeavours lack any sort of originality and I'm terrible at everything. My other "badly drawn" series include authors, directors, rappers and, as mentioned, footballers. If anyone's interested, you can find links to them all at sean-ryan-illustration.tumblr.com.

The main difference between drawing those series and drawing models is that it's probably easier to draw someone if their face is flawed in some way or if they're older and wrinkled and have a broken nose, but most models have these perfectly symmetrical, blemish free faces. So that's a challenge sometimes.

Also, I try to be careful not to offend any of the models I draw, because they're all people I admire, whereas with most authors or old footballers, I don't really have to worry about that. That's not to say I don't admire the authors and old footballers that I draw -  I do -  it's just that I can't imagine William Golding's estate being offended if I've drawn his eyes two vastly different sizes.

A: And lastly, which artist/designer is your biggest influence?

S: Listening to Black Flag when I was younger introduced me to Raymond Pettibon's work and I became sort of obsessed with his drawings for a while (and I still am), so I'd say say he's always been a massive inspiration. I think it's fascinating that someone who started off drawing fliers for a hardcore punk can end up having a solo exhibition at the Whitney.

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