KIM RAYMOND
An Artist's Journey
Making art for art's sake is a wonderful, utopian ideal. Making art for product is something else.
For over forty years I have been creating art for product. Initially, for The Walt Disney Company, then for British comics, and then, back again for Disney, where I had been for the last 30 or more years. I finally left my position as Senior Principal Artist at the end of 2019 when I was excited to return to a personal animation project I had too little time for before. But this has been shouldered aside on occasion since 2019 as I have been asked to help out my ex-Disney colleagues with new character art and animation projects as and when neededed. I have been working from my own studio at home, but then, since the pandemic hit, so has pretty much everyone else. It's a new fluid world. Now I enjoy the perfect balance of drawing classic Disney characters on the one side, and animating my own small project "The Beautiful Game", now completed and released to festivals earlier in 2022.
This website is a tiny window onto my world.
THE BEAUTIFUL GAME
Released 2022.
I was head choir boy in the town that I was born, after my elder brother before me. Now, mostly I draw.
My three years at West Surrey College Of Art and Design were complex, yet I experienced some amazing things, and met some amazing people. Specializing in animation was natural, and even today, it is my first obsession.
But for the last 35 years I have been focussed on one thing; applying character art successfully to product, be it softlines, publishing, home, marketing and PR.
ABOUT ME
With a history in comics and Disney my skill set has remained purely two dimensional - at least on paper!
I began my career at The Walt Disney Company in London as a junior artist, when I was 21. As animation was beyond my grasp, situated as it was in the US, I moved into British comics, starting on young girls' titles like Mandy and Tracy, and moving eventually to boys titles like 2000 AD in the nineteen eighties, and two daily newspaper panel strips; Roy of the Rovers for TODAY, and Checkout Girl for THE STAR which both ran for several years. The last three decades has seen me back in the fold at Disney, finishing my full-time career as Senior Principal Artist at the end of 2019.
EDUCATION
- Animation at West Surrey College of Art and Design
- Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, University of London
SPECIAL SKILLS
It's one thing having a great character, it's entirely something else to make it alive with good story-telling.
I bring this philosophy to my work on character art for product, publishing and animation.
EXPERIENCE
1999 - 2019
The Walt Disney Company
SENIOR PRINCIPAL ARTIST
Overseeing the creation of original character art for products in the Disney Store Group in EMEA.
1992 - 1999
Character Magic Ltd.
Managing Director
Leading the UK's most influential Disney character art studio, supplying concepts, pencil art and final colour illustrations to Disney licensees across Europe.
- Disney Character Art
- Character Book Illustration
- Traditional hand-drawn cel animation
- Authentic Original Character Sketches and watercolours
- Personal Appearances
© Disney
