How 'bad' drawings took a Liverpool illustrator from kitchen table sketches to A list commissions

When Sean Ryan first discovered an old football sticker album and decided to sketch a few players, he never intended it to be much more than a bit of a laugh.

But it wasn’t long before his quirky caricature style, characterised by deliberately ‘bad’ likenesses, won him some unexpected celebrity fans.

Since he started Badly Drawn Footballers, and set up subsequent social media accounts including Badly Drawn Celebrities, for models, DJs, and celebs, Sean has had commissions from fashion giants Calvin Klein to Hollywood stars Timothy Chalamet and Demi Moore.

He’s even spotted one of his drawings on a T-shirt worn by Harry Styles!

Now 39-year-old Sean, who runs the Sh*t Indie Disco club night in Liverpool with his brother Nick, has completed his latest, and physically biggest, job to date.

Badly Drawn harry styles. Credit: Sean Ryan

Two of his illustrations, of Polpetta owners Meatball Molly and her business partner Joel McCarthy, have been used as the shopfront branding for their latest food venture in the city – Moll & Joel’s Rolls.

“I’ve known Joel for a while and he mentioned in the summer he was getting the new place,” explains Sean. “He said they were thinking of putting the drawings of him and Moll on the menus, but they ended up all over the shop, they’re massive, and even the wording is my handwriting so I was made up.”

For Sean, seeing the positive reaction to his work at Moll & Joel’s has inspired him to focus more on it again in 2025.

It’s about 10 years since he first started Badly Drawn, choosing the name to head-off any online negative comments.

“Calling it that was like an insurance policy because I thought as soon as I put them on the internet people would be saying, that looks nothing like them!” he laughs.

“The first drawings I did were footie players because I found an old sticker book from 1994 and drew the managers and players from that. I think weirdly the first football one was the manager of Arsenal at the time, George Graham, just because I did them A-Z.

Badly Drawn jurgen klopp. Credit: Sean Ryan

“I made a Facebook page and it started getting loads of shares and people asking to buy prints and T-shirts.

“It really blew up and I thought about making it more full-time but then Sh*t Indie got going more, that took over and I didn’t get as much time to draw.”

After Badly Drawn Footballers came Badly Drawn Models, which helped Sean land his first big A-list job.

“I hadn’t been doing it that long and someone from Calvin Klein got in touch and said they had a hotel booked for Coachella, and they wanted to fly me out to Palm Springs for this big party.

Badly Drawn Paul McCartney. Credit: Sean Ryan

“I got there are there were people like Virgil Abloh and all these top models at the time and I was sitting by the side of the pool, with DJs on and a free bar, with just a few bits of paper, drawing as everyone came over.

“They were saying ‘do you live out here in America?’ and I was literally living at my mum and dad’s house in Maghull then, drawing on their kitchen table!”

After setting up Badly Drawn Celebrities, which is now his main account, Sean had other surprise orders.

“This girl got in touch and said she loved my drawings and asked if I’d do one for her, her mum and dad. I didn’t recognise her surname, but then I Googled her and her mum was Demi Moore and her dad was Bruce Willis!

“Maya Rudolph got in touch and said she was doing Saturday Night Live that week and Timothy Chalamet was going to be on and could I do a drawing of him.

“And another guy messaged and said he had a friend who liked my drawings and he wanted some celebs doing as a gift for him. He told me later that the friend was Harry Styles and then I saw a behind-the-scenes documentary and Harry Styles was wearing this T-shirt I’d drawn with an Arsenal footballer on it.”

Although most of his work is celebrities, Sean has had some major corporate customers too – Apple invited him to a store opening in Oxford and asked to use some of his drawings worldwide.

“I was getting tagged in photos of Apple shops in China and South America!”

He’s recently moved to south Liverpool and created a spare room studio, so Sean hopes this year could see more time dedicated to Badly Drawn.

“I’ve got a massive list of people I want to draw, the quirkier the better.

“Walking past a coffee shop and seeing your drawings doesn’t feel real, especially as it wasn’t something I ever planned to do. It’s all been a bit weird, what’s come along from what started as a few stupid drawings.”