Hello there! My name is Ryan Raventhal aka "Den Radar Ryan". I'm  an independent artist, writer and animator.

 

Name explained: In our family home growing up, the main activities room to relax and watch movies, read books, listen to music, etc was referred to as "the den". Many of the movies, music and art that shaped who I am, I discovered as they passed through the "radar" of our various "dens" over the years. We moved a lot before high school. "Den Radar Ryan" is also a nod to the "Den" segment and the band Riggs' song "Radar Rider" from the opening segment of the 1981 animated adult scifi classic, 'Heavy Metal'. My third favourite movie of all time!

 

I was born in the late 1970s in Nova Scotia, Canada. I had an 1980s childhood and came of age in the 1990s. These eras shaped my taste in music, film, art and pop culture. You will see many things referenced from these eras in history in my work. The 70s, 80s and 90s are the three decades that most of my favourite things in the world were created.

 

This was back in the days long before the internet or even a computer at home...and even before we had cable TV in our house. We only had three channels in the 80s on the TV antenna. It was only a 13" colour TV without a remote. My brother and I were the remotes. "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe' and 'The Raccoons' were my favourite cartoons.

 

Once my Dad bought us a VCR in 1986, we rented movies almost every weekend for pretty much the next decade. We also went to the theatre and drive-in many times per year. So many great memories and this made me a lifelong movie fanatic. I was mainly into scifi and action movies as a kid and then horror movies became the new favourite in the mid 90s during high school. I was up until 3 am almost every Friday night watching movies I rented, right after 'The X-Files' of course. 

 

We always had an absolute wealth of illustrated children's books in the house growing up as my mother was a very dedicated elementary school teacher. These books had a tremendous influence on me as an illustrator. I used to love leaving silly cartoon character greetings on the chalkboard for her students in her classrooms. One day, I would love to write and illustrate a graphic novel or a children's book...or even illustrate one for another author as a collaboration.

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I did read comic books as well but never had a huge collection.

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It all starts with pencil and paper for me with my visual art. I love cartoons and caricatures most of all. Especially black and white cartoon strips and satire art. MAD Magazine and HEAVY METAL Magazine were two of my biggest influences as an illustrator.
 

I really began my creative journey as a kid taking a few drawing classes and by 5th grade, I was drawing regularly and even dabbling in story writing off and on. I would write stories based on movies and shows I loved, basically just early fan fiction. I would also draw characters I loved and would visually devour any book of cartoon characters and comic strips around.

 

One of my fondest drawing memories at an early age was drawing all of the 'Dick Tracy' (1990) villain characters from the movie magazine when I was 11 years old. I spent four hours on a Friday night just drawing them as cartoon characters. I wish I still had those drawings. 

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I went to college after high school and first studied the basics of photography, graphic design and television production. I also took various weekend courses on film editing, and cinematography in the late 1990s through local film workshops. I worked at a VHS rental store at the time as well. Loved that job. 

 

Eventually, I went on to another college for classical (hand drawn) animation. Animation school greatly improved my drawing skills. We also studied the history of animation and did a lot of experimental animation including various stop-motion projects. A fantastic learning experience that taught me so many of the skills I still use today. You can view a short reel of my early animation pencil tests from this era on the ART page of this site.

 

I have not done a lot of animation over the years since college, as I focused more on illustration. I do have a short animated film that is in very early development and will take quite a white to complete. I do still experiment with some short animation using my illustrations. 

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My life of art is far from finished. I love to experiment with new styles when I can. Still, cartoons rule!

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I have also written various short horror tales and a few novellas over the years. There are two stories I am currently in the process of finishing and releasing over the next several years. I absolutely love short horror fiction the best. The original tales will be available in the Stories page once completed. 

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It has been a dream of mine to make a living with my artwork, somehow, but that has been quite challenging over the years to do this full time...and it sure isn't getting any easier in today's age. I have been working independently for decades. I have been taking various design, photo editing and artwork commissions whenever opportunities arise. I never have and never will stop making art despite these struggles. 

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This is the art life. 

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Soon, I will tell you about the music side of my life. Hard rock, metal, film scores and more. The music is always playing around here. Some of my favourites are below in playlists.

 

If you made it this far. Thank you. This is me. Thanks for your support! 

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Peace, love, music and art for all! ♥

 

- Den Radar Ryan