Roy Carnon

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peacock = September 2008
rewrite = September 2008
unreferenced = September 2008

During his early life Roy Carnon lived in Isleworth, London, attending art school in Chiswick for a very short time. He became an illustrator, working mainly for advertising agencies, and always sketching in parks, on railway stations and in buses. He used to carry a small sketch-book or a pack of plain postcards for this purpose at all times. His remarkably lively figure drawing is evident in the very many (now collectable) cover illustrations for Corgi Books of this period.

When war broke out in 1939 he still found time for sketching, even as a fireman during the London blitz and after that when he joined the RAF as air-crew. He became a navigator on Sunderlands, seeing service in Africa, India, and the Far East, as well as home waters. His work at this time was mainly small sketches, using whatever materials were to hand.

After the war he returned to illustration until, in 1965, he was recruited to work with Stanley Kubrick on , producing designs for space craft, film sets and visuals of the “wheel” space station, and earning the great respect of those he worked with in the film industry.

Thereafter he worked on many well-known films as sketch artist (the Bonds, Superman, Return of the Jedi, Where Eagles Dare, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds, Frenzy, the Battle of Britain, etc).

An extraordinarily versatile artist, Roy Carnon could turn from illustration to technical drawing, landscape, portraiture, architecture, set design and brilliant drawings of figures and animals.

At 75 he retired to Mere in Wiltshire, continuing work on his paintings and on many creative projects until his death in 2002 at the age of 91.