The Little Dictator is the 'real' story behind Napoleon, he has decided to invade Russia but his adventures are left beaten by Mother nature.

Peter Lowey biography

Peter Lowey is a 24-year-old artist/filmmaker/animator from Melbourne, Australia. Influenced by early Disney animation Peter mainly specializing in 2D animation and uses the traditional method of drawing frame by frame.  His work has been aired on television and shown at film festivals. “What motivates me about animation is that the possibilities of the art form are limitless, anything is possible.”

The first film Peter saw at a movie theater was Snow white and the seven dwarfs when he was just five and since then he has always been fascinated by animation.

Peter Lowey first began studying drawing under artist Noela Patone when he was six and remained a student of hers until he was 13.  There he learnt many methods of drawing such as perspective, sketching, still life, cartooning and he also learnt to perfect his own style. 

During his early teens Peter began making his own little animations and in 2005 he studied at the Advanced Diploma of Multimedia at R.M.I.T.  There he created three animated short films.  The first was ‘The blue bird on my shoulder’ an experimental piece which combined surreal imagery with animation creating a fascinating look inside the unconscious mind.  Next was ‘Dreaming’, a fun animation that takes us into a persons dream and in 2006 Peter made ‘The little dictator’, an eight-minute animation that took a year to make.  The little dictator is the ‘real’ story behind Napoleon, he decides to invade Russia but his adventures leave him beaten by Mother Nature.

Artist's Statement

“The little dictator is kind of like a dedication to the cartoons I saw as a kid, or the type of cartoons I wished I had seen.” ‘The blue bird on my shoulder’ and ‘Dreaming’ have both played at the Portable Film Festival and been shown on T.V channel JTV and channel 31.

All Peters animations are made using a wacom tablet to draw everything on to a computer program called Macromedia Flash, it’s a process that makes it easier and quicker to animate rather then the old fashioned way with paper and light boxes.

This technique allows him to put more effort and control into his work.

Currently Peter is studying Animation and Interactive Media at R.M.I.T and will be making more animations soon. “I hope to explore and create more styles of animation and to keep doing things differently each time.”