Renowned illustrator Peter de Séve delivered the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s seventh annual Jack Davis Distinguished Visiting Artist Lecture on Jan. 27.

He spoke about making magazine covers for The New Yorker and creating characters for movies such as Ice Age and Finding Nemo. Some excerpts:

“I’m technically colorblind. I can see a true red and a true green, but there are a few shades of red, green and brown that totally throw me. So I was terrified of working in color. I wish I had done more of it, but I started to find my way, slowly, by doing brown paintings. People thought it was very classy, but really it was just that I could see those colors. . .

“When I first went to my interview at Parsons (School of Design), I had a portfolio full of black-and-white drawings. I told myself before I went in, ‘Whatever you do, don’t tell them you’re colorblind. Don’t tell them you’re colorblind.’

“So I went in and the lady said, ‘These are all good, but there don’t seem to be any in color,’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s because I’m colorblind’. . .

“So I mentioned to the woman who was interviewing me that (the department chairman) was colorblind. So she called him up and said, ‘Bernie, are you colorblind?’ and he said, ‘Yes I am, Carmella. And so is half the department.’

“So I realized that it’s a very common thing and something I didn’t have to worry about.”