“C.F. Payne’s work shows the joy of making.

There’s a freshness and energy that comes through the layers of colored pencil, oil paint, acrylic, ink, and who-knows-what kind of other alchemist’s potions he puts down on the illustration board. No matter the task at hand, he’s always up for a challenge.

Twenty well-known celebrities in formal attire at an imaginary party? In four days? Sure, can do. National magazine cover in twelve hours? Yes, he’ll fit it in. Design an eighty-foot mural? Sounds like fun! Assignments that might scare others he takes pleasure in tackling.”

—Stewart McKissick speaking at Payne’s Society of Illustrators 2018 Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

C.F. Payne is an illustrator and arts educator with a passion for drawing. His work has appeared in publications such as Time, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, MAD, Boys Life, Atlantic Monthly, AARP, the Wall Street Journal and many other national and international publications.

John Lithgow’s The Remarkable Farkle McBride and Micawber, Steve Martin’s Late for School and Mark Kelly’s Mousetronaut and Mousetronaut Goes to Mars are just a few of the twenty children’s books C.F. has illustrated. Others include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Casey at the Bat, To Dare Mighty Things: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt and Ogden Nash’s Line Up for Yesterday.

His work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Norman Rockwell Museum, Mazza Museum, Cincinnati Art Museum and others around the world. He is the subject of the movie: C.F. Payne: An American Illustrator.

C.F. started his career in Dallas in 1980. Since then, he has received Gold Medals from the Society of Illustrators in 1993 and 1996, Silver Medals in 1992, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2001. He received the Hamilton King Award for excellence in illustration in 1995 and the Society of Illustrators Distinguished Educator Award in 2012. The National Cartoonist’s Society awarded him the Illustration Award in 2002 and the Book Illustration Award in 2003. In 2017, he won the Individual Artist Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio. Communication Arts awarded him the Award of Excellence in 2020.

C.F. Payne lives in Ohio and continues to accept assignments and commissions from clients and individuals around the world. He enjoys speaking to students and professionals at universities, schools and art groups. C.F. is the Director of the Master of Fine Arts in Illustration program at the University of Hartford.