Sunday, October 30, 2011

Coffee with C. F. Payne

In Cincinnati, Ohio yesterday, Jeanette and I had a cup of coffee with artist - illustrator C.F. (Chris) Payne. 



He has done hundreds of magazine covers and children’s books. He also designed this "Singing Mural" for a building in Cincinnati.


Most of the mural was actually painted by a team of local young people, but Chris had to help with parts of it. “I climbed the scaffold to work on Mr. Rogers’ daggone teeth,” he said.


As we talked shop, we couldn’t resist sketching each other.

He told us his definition of illustration. “Illustration is Art done under the circumstances,” he said.
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More on C.F. Payne
On Halloween, Monday, October 31, from 11-12:30, I'll be lecturing on color and light at the Canzani Center Auditorium at the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) in Ohio. It's free and open to the public.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Love his definition of illustration!

Richard J. Luschek II said...

I am very glad they decided to add your portrait to the singing mural. Wonderful addition.

Steven K said...

C. F. Payne is one of American illustrations real treasures. He makes illustration cool for all ages.

jeffkunze said...

There is a lot of awesomeness in this photo!!
I had C.F. Payne as an instructor while at CCAD. Amazing artist and really great guy! One thing I remember about him is when he would do demonstrations he had this palette that was probably 2-3 inches thick with dried acrylic paint on it. The thing could probably have stopped a bullet.

Erik Bongers said...

Illustration '05, issue 2 has a long interview with C.F. Payne, subtitled "Art under the circumstances". It has many juicy full page size illustrations. Love his Andrew Wyeth portrait and his Jack Nicholson is really impressive.
Interview contains some good advice for beginning illustrators on choosing style and planning a carreer.
Highly recommended.

Aaron said...

Had to study Payne in several of my illustration classes. I consider him the finest contemporary caricature artist around.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for visiting with the CCAD Community! It is always a pleasure to have an "Uncle" stop-by for an informative discussion (insert image of the faculty wildly nodding our heads in agreement during the presentation!)

Jenny Ustick said...

Aside from getting his help on Mr. Rogers' teeth, I had to ask him to sign it as well. True honor meeting him and executing his great design!