Pete Lyon

Pete Lyon is a UK-based visual artist who has worked in a wide range of 2D and 3D media spanning from traditional oil painting to computer graphics, for the science fiction and fantasy genres. According to his personal website,^[1] he has been involved in various works in the computer games industry such as graphic production, teaching and management, with 3D modelling and animation. He is known as a pioneer graphic designer for the Atari and the Amiga^[2] in the 1980s and 1990s.^[3]

Early life and education

Born in 1950 in north Liverpool, England, Peter Michael Lyon won a place at St Mary’s Roman Catholic College in Crosby when he was only 11. In 1962, his family moved to Australia where they lived in the outback town of Penola and in Adelaide. Pete attended the Croydon Boys Technical High School for a few years before his family returned to England in the mid-1960s. For his collegiate experience, Pete attended 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 ^[4] plus a set of representational paintings.

Career

Role in Science Fiction Fandom

Lyon moved to Leeds in West Yorkshire in 1973 and by the mid-1970s, after working in short-term posts, he set out to develop as an artist and began working on painting techniques (oils, acrylics, airbrushing). A growing involvement in the Science Fiction (SF) fandom led to the production of a large quantity of cartoons and pictures for many science fiction fanzines of the late 70’s and early 80’s. In 1982, he was voted UK fan artist of the year. He also helped organize a number of UK science fiction conventions and ran the art show at Seacon, the world science fiction convention in 1989. He was also a guest of honour in Glasgow at Albacon III in 1986 alongside Joe Haldeman, John Jarold and Clive Barker.^[5] He was twice nominated for British SF Association Awards ^[6] 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 during the mid 80’s, Lyon 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: The Karate Kid: Part II (1986), Goldrunner (1987), Airball (1987), Tanglewood (1988), Leatherneck (1988), and Fright Night (1988). His programming experience allowed him to adapt graphics to the needs of the programmer, maximizing the limited processing and graphics capabilities of 1980’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

Lyon 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 in 1989. In 1985, Lyon produced the cover for the hardback version of the 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 Lyon 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. He also helped to create several commercially successful games, including: Astaroth (1989),^[7] Gravity (1990),^[8] Amnios (1991),^[9] The Godfather (1992),^[10] Daughter of Serpents (1992),^[11] Powermonger (1992),^[12] Dropzone, (1994)^[13] and Worms Reinforcements (1995).^[14] As the games industry expanded in the 1990s and early 2000s, Lyon’s role as a lead artist spanned graphic production, training and development, as well as management at a number of UK companies in Yorkshire and Manchester including Sprytes ^[15] 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

Lyon continued to work on some diverse commercial projects that included 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 Silent Night beds Hippo and Duck.^[16] His 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 such as Creations, and Z2 as an artist and visualizer, and later Traveller’s Tales on a Lego game projects.

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

References