What or who inspires you?
Visually, old things mainly inspire me; old books, photos, diagrams, architectural drawings, charts and prints, information graphics, Isotype, propaganda art. Reading tends to spark things off quite a lot too; Jorge Luis Borges and Flann O’Brien have been recent interests.

Your illustrations have Cubist reflections, in terms of the geometric line work, and they also seem to draw from tribal and folkart, and/ or woodblock printing, was this a conscious reference point? If so were there any specific artists you looked at?
I’ve looked at a lot of Japanese woodblock art by Hokusai and Kuniyoshi, also old Chinese maps and acupuncture diagrams. Haida Indian art is some of the most amazing work I’ve seen. When I was a kid we had a Haida print of an orca hanging in our hall, which my parents brought back from Canada. I think that was one of the earliest images that made me want to draw. Escher is a big influence too.

Are your illustrations hand-drawn or digitally created? What is your process?
It’s a mix of the two, really, all my work usually starts out as a pencil or ink drawing, which I then put through a photocopier/ scanner and arrange and colour them digitally. At the moment I’m leaning toward a more hand-made approach, I’m making new work using a silk screen and found paper.

How do you find your subject matter? And do you tend to focus on specific themes?
Unless I’m planning a book or film I don’t really nail a theme down before I start work on something. I find it best to scratch around for a while, and eventually all those bits floating around in the back of your mind that you’ve seen and read start to come together into something coherent.

Was “Rooftops” a commissioned/ requested animation or did you animate to the song for yourself?
It was commissioned by the band 8Ball, friends of mine from Dublin. I had never used 3D software before so there was a bit of a learning curve, but I did discover some interesting digital/ analogue animation techniques along the way, which I’ll be developing in the near future.

Have you decided which pieces to exhibit at the Legion? Did you create some new ones specifically for the show?
I’m mostly showing older work as it seems to fit the dark and dreamy theme better, there are a couple of newer pieces in there too, though I didn’t create specific new work for the show as it was quite short notice.

Are you going to be showing any of your animations at the Legion or will it just be illustrations?
My animation work will be shown, but not at the launch unfortunately as there’s a problem getting a digital projector in time. I think it will be there from Friday the 24th onwards.

What are you working on at the moment? Any projects coming up?
I’ve spent the last few months reworking my portfolio and website and I’m now in the process of shameless self-promotion and harassing people for commissions. I’m also making some new work for the ‘Art on the Green’ fair in the middle of August, and working on a show of installation work with some friends in Dublin for September.

For more of Eoin Ryan's work, visit his jotta profile.