2013... nearly a decade ago! This was the year I completed my animation degree at Glamorgan University (which has since become the University of South Wales), and I jumped into the world of the animation industry.
A lot has of course happened in that time - I've been lucky enough to work on an amazing range of projects, so many of which I've taken the helm of and learnt about every stage of the animation process along the way. Some of which have even taken me to several awards ceremonies and clinched me some prizes - all of which, I couldn't be any more grateful for.
For those 9 years, I have gone under the name of 'Mojo Animations and Designs'. It was a name that I simply remember just having in my head, I liked the sound of it, and liked the idea of it as a name to encompass my animation work from that point onwards. However in recent times, I feel that my work, my life even, has become so much more than animation.
Animation will always be a major part of what I do, I still love it and get excited by it in just the same way as I did when I was practically part of the furniture in the animation rooms at Glamorgan, with the endless hours spent working on both shorts that I created at the time - 'Good Day Bad Day' and 'Showtime'. I thrive being able to try new styles, explore new characters and stories, and that will never go away. But now I feel I want to push my skills, my work into whole new areas.
It began, as I think a lot things did for a lot of people, over lockdown. My sister was doing a project for her art college course at the time, a project where she needed to draw portraits, and she came to me for help. Ashamedly it had been a long, long time since I had ventured into the world of realistic or traditional drawing, and I genuinely had no clue if I could be of any help what so ever. But strangely enough I sat down with her and began to talk through where to begin... and it all came back to me. The process of portraiture and drawing from life seemed to flow out of me like it had been waiting on the edges of my brain ready for the day to be let loose again. I had found my spark for it again - I couldn't resist the urge to go and buy a sketchbook, some new pencils and try it again for myself. Out of this burst of creativity came my first portrait, that of John Locke from one of my all time favourite TV shows LOST...
After that, I had caught the bug. I continued to find reference pictures to draw from, did a 'Drawing-a-Day' advent calendar throughout that December - a challenge that certainly kept me on my toes - and set up an instagram account dedicated to my drawings, 'RyanJJones_art'.
The response I was getting from people was amazing, people were seemingly loving what I was creating, so much so I was able to start taking commissions off the back of it. Animation work then of course started to come back in and took over my time again, but the buzz and the enjoyment I got and still get from drawing in this way was something I couldn't let go of.
Slowly the 'RyanJJones_art' account began to incorporate my animation work as well, along with my other illustrations and designs. And now, at a time in my career when I want to explore more creatively, to try new things, go in different directions and push myself out of my comfort zone - with my animation, my drawing, my illustration work, whatever it may be - It feels like the perfect time for a new beginning.
I want 'Ryan.J.Jones Art' to encapsulate everything I do - my animation work, my traditional drawings, my illustration and design work, as well as my occasional writing work, and I want to be able to showcase all that I do and can offer. So the site you read this on is the result of that... where you'll find a bunch of the animation projects I've worked on over the years as an animator and director, complete with a brand spanking new showreel. There's my animation design portfolio where you can flick through a wide range of the design work that went into creating the projects, and you can have a browse through my traditional drawings, and illustrations. Also, keep an eye on the blog section for behind the scenes blogs where I'll go a bit more into the process and making of projects and artwork.
So this isn't a goodbye to 'Mojo Animations and Designs' - more of a freshen up, a new lick of paint, and the start of hopefully something new and exciting...
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