Peter Payne is an artist with broad experience working in illustration and animation. His resume provides good reading and his experience is something to take note of. We had the opportunity to speak to the London based artist about his work and current projects
When did you decide to fully embrace art and animation as a career?
I guess from about the age of 10, although I was really into drawing from about 7. My seminal moment was when I started watching cartoons, being fascinated by how drawings could be made to move through the process of animation and collecting lots of comics as a child. Mostly superhero comics like Spiderman, Superman, Batman, The Defenders to name but a few. The cartoons that I love to watch ranged from Disney to Warner Bros and Tex Avery. I was so hooked on animated cartoons to the point where I was pretty obsessed with them. Much later on, I did some research and realized that it was possible to earn a living doing this, although it’s a highly competitive field and opportunities are limited, to say the least. All this inspired me to create my own so when I could afford one I bought myself a Super 8 cine camera.
Which artists have been the most influential in your career and why?
Well, now there have been so many to name a few in terms of artists. Tony Hart originally appeared on a tv show called Vision On, which was aimed at deaf people, and then he had his own shows Take Hart and Hartbeat, where he would create art from many different things using marker pens, big wall paintings with tins of paint. Plus the use of animal bones and everyday things you could find around the home. In addition to that, he was a cartoonist and drew little characters for tv.
Enrique Badia Romero was a comic strip illustrator from Spain most famous for strips like Axa and Modesty Blaise. His artwork was just amazing to me. The ink work was so exquisite, in terms of animation
Richard Williams, who made numerous animated commercials including Tic Tac mints, Superman anti-smoking, and Jovan cologne, which are just a few of my favorites. He was director of animation for the world-famous ‘’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit’’ movie made back in the ’80s. I love the old Disney classics such as Jungle Book, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, Dumbo, etc…
In addition to that, I was such a big fan of Saturday Morning cartoons made by Hanna/Barbera and Filmation in particular the old Scooby-Doo, Space Ghost, Godzilla, and Jonny Quest and also He-man, Space Sentinels, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Superman, Aquaman and Batman cartoons.
Your first job was as a trainee animator. Please share your experiences and how this job impacted your career
I started in the animation industry when I was about 18 with a studio called Brian Stevens Animated Films, based in the west end of London back in the late ’80s. I did bits and pieces on projects- my duties included making the tea/coffee, delivering and collecting, mixing up paint to be used to paint acetates or cells that would then be used for filming such as matte painting. This would assist the production of visual effects on certain projects, and lettering which had to be deadly accurate. Any letter that was too high or too low had to be redone from scratch, which was rather frustrating at times. One particular project that stands out that I worked on was called ‘No Worries’ and I believe it was a live-action sex education program aimed at teenagers. The animation section I worked on was beautifully drawn in a Leonardo Da Vinci style, and one of the things I was told to do was to paint the sperm flowing during the act of intercourse, which I was quite excited about at the time. The impact of my first animation job was a determination to continue in the industry even though I wasn’t at Brian Stevens for very long, due to a lack of work to keep me busy, but I love the industry so much that wanted to go on and on in it.
During the course of your career, you’ve worked with several animation companies. What have been the most fulfilling moments and why?
One particular animation studio I worked for was called Richard Taylor Cartoon Films, based in North London. We worked on an educational video aimed at young children called ‘ Muzzy Comes Back’, which was a sequel to ‘Muzzy in Gondoland’ It’s centered around a big friendly fuzzy green monster named Muzzy, who had a strange appetite for clocks. This was rather fulfilling to work on in that it had a purpose to teach children English and how to tell the time. It was a production for the BBC that involved one or two other studios. This is where I really stuck my teeth into animation, as I was involved in the drawing process as an assistant animator and the tracing and painting on to acetates from the drawings.
You facilitate workshops and collaborate with third parties providing educational platforms. Tell us more about the projects you’ve worked on
In terms of collaborations, I met up with a guy named Dwayne Patrick, the founder of an organization called ‘I CAN’, which supports, encourages, and facilitates the self-empowerment of children. We got together to create an activity book that promotes the I CAN project which includes puzzles, coloring activities, brain teasers and encourages children to set goals in life. I drew the illustrations and devised the puzzles with the assistance of an educational professional to guide us in how to go about creating this book which is currently on sale.
In terms of workshops, I have created cartoon drawing workshops that are aimed at beginners called ‘TOON-IN’ which I got to do on an occasional basis and it is for anyone from the age of 7 upwards, which includes adults because I firmly believe that adults are grown-up children and what I attempt to do is to get the adults to tap into the child in them as well as their inner creativity. I go into the basics of cartooning, I usually start up with warming up exercises where I get them to draw different types of lines and shapes to loosen them up a bit. In addition to that, I get them to do what I would call toon tricks, which involves drawing words into pictures. For example, they would write the word ‘dog’ and draw the word dog into a cartoon looking dog as I instruct them, which gives me so much joy to see.
What have been your biggest challenges as an artist?
The biggest challenges for me as an artist have been getting regular paid work from what I do and attracting new regular clients, getting the right contacts that lead to more profitable commissions. I have concluded that having talent simply isn’t enough in this business and it is a case of who you know and being in the right place at the right time.
What advice would you give to young artists embarking on their careers?
My advice would be to work hard on improving your talent, research ways as to how to get your talent recognized promote yourself on social media work on building your own brand.
What are you currently working on?
Well at the moment I’m working on some character development, drawing various sketches of characters in different poses and occasionally coming up with new characters and also collaborating with another artist named Morris Thompson on what we hope to be a comic/activity book centered around black characters, but it is very much in its early stages.
Where can our readers find out more about you?
My website: www.peterpayne.one
My blog: peterpayne2002.wordpress.com
SOCIAL MEDIA: www.facebook.com/peter.payne.399
peterpayne.crevado.com
All images courtesy of Peter Payne
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