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Contact the Artist, Valerie Ryan.

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Hi There! Nice to meet you.


Get to know the Artist, Valerie Ryan.

Hello from Beautiful British Columbia!

Artist Valerie A Ryan of Tazmaa's Anime Art Studio visit porfolio >>

My name is Valerie Ryan and I’ve been a freelance online anime, cartoon & graphic artist for quite some time now. Born in 1981, I have been happily married to my husband Mathew Ryan since we were in our teens. We don’t have children but we do have an adorable miniature schnauzer who goes by the name of “Kiko”. I was born and raised in Montreal, QC but I now live in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

My interests are drawing, swimming, biking, camping, hiking, tennis & reading. Although classical is my favorite musical genre, my favorite musical artist (Pink Floyd) isn’t a classic music artist. My favorite color is blue and my least favorite is red. In the past I was a huge MMORPG Video Game fan and played both Everquest and World of Warcraft. I now enjoy all sorts of video games such as Osu, Heathstone and Heroes of the Storm. I also enjoy playing console games, mostly the Final Fantasy series.

As a young child in school, I used to always get in trouble for having sketches all over my notes. My teachers would bust me for drawing instead of paying attention. I would create characters and stories and dream of one day seeing these characters in a comic book or an anime series. I have always been eager to draw. One of my first subjects of obsession was Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I’ve spent a lot my free time in my youth drawing Disney characters. When I first saw the anime show Sailor Moon, I was instantly captured! Taking a huge interest in the anime style, I’ve been teaching myself through a lot of practice and since I started commissioning I feel that I have improved a great deal.

What does it mean to be a Freelance Illustrator?

I graduated art school at Visual College of Art & Design in the Graphic Design Program on July 2012. After having worked as a freelance graphic artist for many years, I decided it is time to have the proper schooling behind me. I have enjoyed working freelance because the work is always different and I have met many people. I have had only good experiences in my years working as a freelance artist online and I believe I owe some thanks to all my great customers for that!

Anime Artist Valerie A Ryan

Personality & Tendencies

Being as self-analytical as possible, I would have to say that my personality is still hard to capture in words. I am overly friendly and many people tell me I have a knack for making people around me feel comfortable. I am organized and I have an obsession with efficiency & accuracy. I am honest to a fault and dislike dishonesty in others. I am also known for having a bit of a stubborn streak. Hehe!

As for spoken languages, I speak both English and French though English is my mother tongue. I have to admit my typing in French is less then average, and I haven’t spoken it in years but I can still hold a full conversation.

What's Next?

So you see I have a fairly interesting life as everything I do is always changing. Every new person whom I work for is helping me sharpen my skills and learn new styles or showing me what others deem important in a piece of art.

I still have a bunch to learn about coding home pages, which I was planning to learn. Unfortunately, code and I don't seem to get along. I don't have enough time in my days to dedicate to learning a new skill as vast as web coding!

Overall I am happy with the outcome of my dedication to perfecting my home page, but let's just say I hope I don't need to update it again soon! I am also happy with the progress of my artwork and service. I am excited to see where my art will evolve to in years to come. My plans for artistic growth lately lies in the world of watercoloring. I hope I can get some samples up soon!