Interview with Redwall Artist Pete Lyon

Contributed by LordTBT at 4:15 p.m. GMT, 26 June 2023

Pete Lyon is the very first Redwall book cover artist, having created artwork for UK editions of Redwall, Mossflower, and Mattimeo.

He's also well-known for his groundbreaking video game graphic design and artwork, having contributed to more than 20 titles for the Atari and Amiga systems.

We spoke with Lyon about his involvement with Redwall and his career.

How were you approached to create the first cover for Redwall? What did you think of the book when you initially read it?

I think I was approached by my agent and invited down to talk about the work. I remember the sub editors took me out to a wine bar, it had sawdust on the bare floor and fake rough hewn tables and casks. Such a thing was a bit of a novelty then, very pseud and Londoncentric - at least to me that is, who was more used to down at heel, nicotine stained Victorian pubs.

In a mildly arrogant way, I had to pretend to be unfazed at being wined and dined by these personable and well-spoken women. The fallback position is to go full scouse, as a protective frontage. I remember telling them that in the future all their work would be done on devices which would sit on their desks and communicate with each other without paper, their typewriters and fax machines would be a thing of the past... they looked distinctly dubious. I surmise that my home-town manner may have established a colloquial resonance, an unconscious link to Brian Jacques, who I only knew of vaguely as a local DJ. Regarding the text, it felt familiar as I had already read the same childhood works as had influenced the author.

A quandary was as to what degree these anthropomorphic animals would emulate or be imbued with a look resonant of the Christian faith and the Medieval gothic styles of construction implied in the story.

How and when did you learn that you'd also be creating the covers for Mossflower and Mattimeo?

I'll be honest, events have become somewhat overlayed and conflated as it was a surprisingly busy time for me and I’m pretty sure they became increasingly exasperated with my antics.

Can you describe your artistic process for creating the covers?

Read the book first. When younger, I was always irritated that covers did not match the actual content. Either the artist or publisher were careless, and in many cases the writer was powerless. Problems arise however when one's own vision is at variance with the authors own, which of course should take precedence. I did not have any direct contact with Mr. Jacques and so my stream of questions was more or less mediated by the editors, I just don't know how adequate the inter communication actually was.

I started with a number of rough pencil sketches which I then winnowed down to those I found most suitable. I then completed a series of full sized highly detailed sketches of the proposed covers. Once I got the go ahead, I started painting. It seemed a shame to cover the detailed pencil drawings in actual paint. I wanted to keep them and still have some of them to this day. So... I took them to a Xerox office and had them reproduced at the appropriate scale. This then allowed one or two global tweaks of scale and saturation that would have been difficult to achieve otherwise as things like scanners and graphics computers were still a little primitive, and to be frank, beyond my means.

I worked in the bedroom on a battered and stained dining table given by a friend. There was an old, rusted heap of a car abandoned in the alley and I nicked the flat toughened glass windows as perfect drawing boards. I then stretched out taut the tonally reduced images and drew in colour over the top making use of the hundreds of different coloured pencils I had amassed. I then lightly painted the image using acrylic paints which mixed and blended the water-soluable colours, it also fixed them to some degree. I then painted in all more detail, finally switching to the more opaque medium of gouache for very fine detail and bright highlights. The slight impasto effect this resulted in could then be enhanced with further layer of coloured pencil to achieve texture. The whole was then secured using spray fixative.

Unfortunately, I completely messed up one of the pictures. Over enthusiastic painting meant it was firmly stuck to the glass and I did not dare attempt to peel it off for postage. This meant it was hand delivered everywhere and the poor editors were lumbered with hauling this heavy but delicate plate around to be photographed and whatnot. I was very embarrassed. But they liked it enough to make it worthwhile it seems.

You mentioned that you didn't have direct contact with Brian Jacques, but communicated with the editors. Were you provided with any guidance or notes as to what characters or scenes should appear in the artwork, or instructed to illustrate anything in particular that they were looking for?

Nope, I was given no guidance, they seemed at times puzzled that I even asked. I was more or less left to make up my own mind, which made me feel a bit nervous. I was not confident I was best serving the interests of the book; despite any queries I might have.

The artwork for Redwall and Mattimeo features the villains Cluny the Scourge and Slagar the Cruel, while the artwork for Mossflower features the hero, Martin the Warrior. Do you prefer drawing heroes or villains, or any specific Redwall animal species?

All animals that perform as quasi-human present difficulties. Unless they are very cartoonish from the outset, any detailed or realistic representation throws up all sorts of issues. How does one hold a sword without an opposable thumb? Should the genitals be covered or ignored? Problems of relative scale and what of animals that are arbitrarily dumb like for example horses? Why do they not eat each other or are they all vegetarian? ... and so on...

In the 1980s and 1990s, you worked as a graphic designer for Atari and Amiga video games, inclusive of Goldrunner, The Karate Kid Part II, The Godfather, Airball, and Fright Night, among many others. What was more challenging, working on artwork for a book cover, which may have involved strict guidelines from an editor or publisher, or working on video game graphics, which may have involved restrictions from the programmer, like limitations of color usage, sprite and block size?

It was far more challenging to work within the restrictions of the limited abilities of the machines, but in a good way, refreshing almost. Being a programmer of sorts myself, I could understand the exigencies of storage, speed and display the code required. More than once it led to an extremely abstract mathematical approach to image making in order to squeeze the maximum out of those limited devices. In contrast that is to the often arbitrary and inexplicable (all too derivative) attitudes of publishers and even authors. Having said that, the games industry at that time was a cultural wasteland.

Out of all the video game projects that you contributed to, do you have a favorite?

My favourite game would have to be the one I developed for over a year with a very good friend, Alaric [Binnie]. Unfortunately, for internal political reasons, we were given no real support by the company, and eventually the plug was pulled. The idea was stolen, and it became a major feature film. He drank himself to death.

I never really had a favourite amongst those published. The ones I liked always seemed to fail. !!

Video game graphics have certainly come a long way over the decades. What's surprised you the most about how the industry has evolved?

When it comes to content, nothing has really surprised me - except how conservative developers can be. I'm glad to say there now signs of genuine creativity at the fringes, alongside the over violent dross and franchise spinoffs.

What advice would you offer to someone who wants to be an artist and/or video game graphic designer?

Be careful what you wish for. Read and view widely. Practice how to draw and paint in traditional media - and develop varying styles, don't just copy manga or whatever. Download Blender and Photoshop - and learn them.

Thanks for your time, Pete!

You can view Lyon's video game artwork here.