Pete Lyon: Difference between revisions

Pete Lyon is a UK-based visual artist. Throughout his life he has worked in a wide range of 2D and 3D media that spans traditional oil painting to computer graphics, SF to fantasy. He is known as a pioneer graphic designer for the Atari and the Amiga in the 1980s and 1990s.

Early life

Peter Michael Lyon was born in 1950 and grew up in north Liverpool, winning a place at St Mary’s RC College in Crosby when he was 11. In 1962 his parents took the family to Australia where they lived in the outback town of Penola and in Adelaide, where Pete attended the Croydon Boys’ Technical High School. The family returned to England in the mid 60’s and Pete studied at Liverpool College of Art and Design, where he was taught by acclaimed pop-artist Sam Walsh, Maurice Cockrill R.A. and Mersey poet Adrian Henri. He gained a 2.1 B.A. degree in 1973. A major element of his final portfolio was the fantasy black and white graphic work, Calmabloc plus a set of representational paintings.

Role in Science Fiction fandom

Pete moved to Leeds in West Yorkshire in 1973 and by the mid 70’s, after working in some unfulfilling short-term posts, he set out to develop as an artist and began to work on painting technique (oils, acrylics, airbrushing). A growing involvement in Science Fiction (SF) fandom led to the production of a large quantity of cartoons and pictures for the many fanzines of the late 70’s and early 80’s. He was voted UK fan artist of the year in 1982. He also helped organise a number of UK SF conventions and ran the art show at Seacon, the world SF convention in 1989 and was guest of honour in Glasgow at Albacon III in 1986 alongside Joe Haldeman, John Jarold and Clive Barker. He was twice nominated for British SF Association Awards firstly in 1982 and again in 1987 for his cover work on the first Interzone magazines.

Contribution to 1980's computer games

While teaching illustration and computer programming for the BBC Micro at Swarthmore adult college in Leeds in the mid 80’s, Pete became a professional freelance artist and started to grow a reputation as a cover illustrator for speculative fiction. It was in 1986 when his mix of technical and graphic skills drew him into the emerging computer games industry. Working with Steve Bak at Microdeal, he developed graphics for a string of ground-breaking games such as Karate Kid II (1986), Goldrunner (1987), Airball (1987), Tanglewood (1988), Leatherneck (1988) and Fright Night (1988). Pete’s programming experience allowed him to adapt graphics to the needs of the programmer to maximize the limited processing and graphics capabilities of 80’s technology. He also worked with such significant early games developers and musicians as [[Archer Maclean], Rob Hubbard and Chris Sorrell.

Illustrations for 'Redwall' books

Not satisfied with the 24/7 life of games development, Pete designed a series of cover illustrations for Brian Jacques’ Redwall children’s novel series. He created the UK cover for the first novel, Redwall (1986) and then for Mossflower (1988) and Mattimeo (1989). In 1985, Pete produced the cover for the hardback version of novel The Skook by Emmy-nominated author J P Miller. He also illustrated book covers for European SF and fantasy publications including Nach dem Ende by Friedrich Scholz..

Contribution to 1990's computer games

Computer gaming was by now an international marketplace and Pete turned down offers of work in Hollywood, choosing to stay in England. There he built up a portfolio of high level skills in 3D modelling and animation, working for adventure games house Revolution and publishers such as Psygnosis and Hewson Consultants. Commercially successful games he helped create included Astaroth (1989), Gravity (1990), Amnios (1991), The Godfather (1992), Daughter of Serpents (1992), Powermonger (1992), Dropzone (1994) and Worms Reinforcements (1995). As the games industry expanded in the 1990s and early 2000s, Pete’s role as lead artist spanned graphic production, training & development and management at a number of UK companies in Yorkshire and Manchester including Sprytes and Team 17 where he was art director. In 1996, Pete and games programmer, Alaric Binnie, set up their own company, Dot Products, and started to develop a number of game and graphic ideas together.

Commercial work

Pete has continued to work on some diverse commercial projects that include a 3D model of Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’ and a Christmas promotion for the Co-op. Arguably his most recognizable commercial image in the UK is still the 2000 update of the Silentnight beds Hippo and Duck. Pete’s illustrations were used on lorry liveries, sales literature and TV commercials. He also continued to work into the mid 2000s for a number of major northern games companies in Manchester as artist and visualiser such as Creations, Z2 and latterly Traveller’s Tales on a Lego game projects.

In 2014, Pete is working on projects for their own sake, using traditional techniques which do not rely on digital or technological expertise and without any commercial consideration.