Artist Bio

Ryan Michael Paxton

In 2002, I found a website, deviantART, and made an account. It really birthed my interest into doing art for people to see. I began to write my own comics in high school and experiment with the computer as an art tool. It wasn’t until taking art classes in high school that I really began to learn what it took to be an artist. I got my hands on my first set of paints, canvas, art pencils, and really started to get my feet wet in the art world.

Aikaterine Kolevis - Original Character / Muse

I graduated from Wyoming High School in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2007. In high school, I focused in music and arts, being a part of the philharmonic orchestra as lead chair on the double bass. I took as many art and media classes as I could – Drawing & Painting, Video, Computer Graphics, two years of Art Elective, and finally ending with college courses in Drawing and 2D Design. It was here where I versed myself in Photoshop and began making 2D illustrations of outer space and other science-fiction related works. I entered many shows – Scholastic, Governor’s, etc., and even though I never won anything or placed in a competition, my senior portfolio received a 5/4 from the AP board. On the side I performed for the city at municipal fests and get-togethers with my twin brother. We had started a celtic-fiddle group – myself on guitar, my brother on violin. I knew I wanted to be an artist and decided to focus on visuals rather than music for my career.

Severance - Spacescape Portfolio

My college choices were the University of Cincinnati – DAAP for Industrial Design, Indiana University / Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) for New Media, and Huntington University for Digital Media Arts – Animation. I was accepted at all three and chose to go to DAAP as it was considered the best program in the country with Co-op and other opportunities. It guaranteed me a job upon graduation and had other perks like the ability to commute and have in-state tuition prices. I spent a year there going through the foundation courses in color theory, space, form, and drawing. It was very hands-on and it made me realize that I was not cut-out for the more 3-Dimensional/hand-crafted art forms. I wanted to tell story, go into games, make drawings move, and so I transferred to Huntington University in the fall of 2008.

Becker - Huntington's Animation Building

I am still at Huntington, working on my Bachelor of Science in Digital Media Arts – Animation. I have found it to be a rewarding experience. I have gotten a taste of 3D animation and found that it is not where my skills lie. I have tried out traditional hand-drawn animation and loved it, after effects for particles and puppet animation and loved it, and finally, Toon-Boom Animate Pro. I find this software to be the best for what I’ve been doing. In the Summer of 2010 I took an internship at Kinetic Concepts, Inc. in San Antonio, Texas. I was technically an intern for the Concept Management Team, however, my job was virtually a 2D Animator using Toon-Boom. In three months I created a short, three-minute long cartoon from scratch. I went through pre-visualization, concept art, storyboards, keys, in-betweens, color, and sound design by myself. It was all hand-drawn and it was a total blast!

My Workstation at KCI Medical

Before summer 2011, I finished my Senior Project. It was a six-minute long music video about an astronaut who can’t find earth. It was animated in After Effects using particles and the puppet tool on Adobe Illustrator vector illustrations. It was submitted to the senior showcase back in May. It didn’t place, but I think the overall reception was good. It was nerve-racking to show it to over 300 people at once, but when the applause came I don’t think I’d ever been so relieved and proud of myself! Original sound was created post-showcase and then added to the film. I attempted to submit it to Ottawa IFF, but it didn’t make it in either. Oh well! Haha, you may view it in the animation area of my website or below:

In after school ended, I placed an internship with Motion Capture NYC doing motion graphics and 2D animation work in their studio. I went out to NYC for a month and then fled when the hurricane hit. I continued work remotely as an independent contractor and continue until this day. It’s been fantastic, and led me to nab a 2D animation position with start-up game studio Misfits Attic in LA. I’m working for both companies remotely from my home in Cincinnati. The work has been awesome. I am definitely cut out for video games. It just makes sense for my career. Let’s hope that 2D never dies out! This is the game I’m working on:

Check me out on Linkedin!