The Spoon and Me

As of November 21st 2008, Keith Doodle lives!!  That was the email I received over the weekend, when the book made it onto Amazon.com.  Click here to purchase from America, and here for copies in the UK.

As you can imagine, I am over the moon, high as a kite, stuck to the ceiling and various other ways of saying I am mega, mega happy!  I am also slightly bemused by the fact that my name has it’s own hotlink on Amazon.com, but I’m down as a co-writer on Amazon.co.uk.

For anyone looking and thinking “Han’ about, it says illustrated by Bronwyn Coveney, and this is Bronwyn Dowle’s site,” no, I’m not stealing someone else’s lime light, I am one and the same.  Or at least, I will be Bronwyn Coveney come June 27th 2009 when I marry Mr. Coveney and take his name.

Now that I have a bit of pocket money, I’m going to invest in my own real life website.  Watch this space for updates.  And keep scrolling for previous artwork!
Bron

Friends, Romans, Country Men… I come baring fab news! Last month I finished Keith Doodle Saves Christmas! The book, by Josef Bastian, is out for release in December. Just in time for Christmas, kids!

To whet your no doubt eager palettes, here’s a couple of my favourite images from the book:

Keith Doodle Saves Christmas (1)

Keith Doodle Saves Christmas (2)

Remember previously I said that I’d had a second commission? Well, that second commission is still going ahead, it’s for a US charity

For the real keen, I’ve worked out how to make the image links smaller, so I’m going to edit the images on the previous post. Have a recheck!

Peace,

Bron

PS. You know the rules: everything you see here is owned by me, Bronwyn Dowle.  Keith Doodle is the creation and property of J. Bastian, his agent and his publishers and PAAO PANDA is owned by the PAAO.  Neither can be used or replicated by anyone without express permission from Mr. J. Bastian, representatives of the PAAO or myself.  Ta, lovelies.

OK, so the guy, JB, liked the idea for the previous elf (this one, for those that have forgotton:)

Artist Christmas Elf

He asked for a warmer, edgier style. So I produced this elf:

Keith Doodle Final

JB said yes, and so Bron got commissioned!

To keep your appetite whetted, here are the other characters:

Mr Tinkle - the Teacher

Santa

Santa’s Assistant

You may have noticed that the latter images are huge. I don’t know why they’ve done that, the bloghost hates me.
The more observant among you will notice that this is Commission Number 1. I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait for an update to see what Commission Number 2 entails.

Cheers,

Bron

ETA: Apologies for previous big picture links.  Have sorted out, seems I can work out HTML coding!  Oh, and as always, everything shown here is owned by me, Bronwyn Dowle.  Keith Doodle is the product of J. Bastian, his agent and his publishers, and may not be recreated anywhere without his express permission, or mine.

Ah, September arrives… the summer leaves.

Amidst rollerblading, wedding plans and camping trips, I have been a-job hunting.  Included in this super-merry fun post, are some character tests for a couple of people I’ve contacted regarding book illustration work.

Bear

First character for a gentleman in the UK, apologies for the out of focus-ness.  Said gentleman wanted a basic teddy bear character, nothing fancy.  He also specifically asked for aposable fingers and thumbs.

Girl

Second character for the above mentioned gent.  He had requested a girl in a nurses uniform, blonde.  I chose a uniform that was too big and ill fitting to make her look smaller and more, well, adoreable!  Both characters were produced with crayon.

Artist Christmas Elf

This was the initial design for a fellow in the States.  The design laid down was a Christmas Elf with a love of art.  So I chose a traditional artist look; hat, paint-splattered dungerees, pencil behind the ear, while keeping with the Christmas theme, hence the red, white and green colours.  While the fellow was pleased with the outcome, he has requested a second concept in a less “cartoony” style, more leaning towards art deco.

Frog

This was for my sake; I like frogs!  The frog and the elf were both produced in oil pastil on sugar paper.

Peace out.

Bron

PS.  All the above art has been produced by me - Bronwyn Dowle - and is owned entirely by me.  The bear and the girl are designs owned by Mr. BB of the UK and the elf design is owned by Mr. JB of the USA.  Any attempts to copy these designs or use the above work without permission will result in a serious butt-kicking. 

Since it’s been a while, I thought it was time to add some more pictures.  Since I’ve now moved back to parents’ house, I now lack the equipment I need to animate, and all my gear for home animating is packed away somewhere only God knows. 

Nonetheless, these are some older pictures and a selection from my third year film (for more, see

More Cavy 29/12/07

Even More Cavy 30/12/07

Rick Allen Guinea Pig

Man in the Moonlight Lounge March 2007

Life Drawing February 2007

Dragon Ying Yang Summer 2007

Surfer June 2008

Pinny Gig Poster - Yoda

I know it seems like I do a lot of line drawing, and truth is yes, I do.  I’m an animator with traditional skills, I enjoy weilding a pencil.  Don’t be mistaken, don’t be misled, I can use other mediums too.

Oh, for what it’s worth, I got my rollerblades!  They are the way of the future, my friends!

Bron

PS. All above images are property of Bronwyn Dowle, and can not be used without her express permission. 

Mate.

OK, so I’ve mucked up a few things to get this right, but I’ve now worked out how to embed videos onto the page! Thank the Big G for that! This means that all videos posted here can now be found on Youtube. Not that I’m a total sell out or anything…
Once again, my film Pinny Gig; bigger, better and reeditted.

That’s not all, folks, I’ve also got round to creating my first showreel. I say first, because I intend on changing it fairly soon so that I have cleared, more recent animation. Will see what my work with Maya produces. Regardless, here it is:

And hold onto your hats, I’ve not only got those, but some piccies for you too! Spoil you, I do! First is a line drawing of a cat. I like cats, they’re graceful when they move, a pleasure to watch and exciting to draw. The second is what happened after I blitzed it with felt tips!

cat line drawn

cat felt tip

A happy weekend to you all!

Bron

PS. You all know the score: All work posted here is owned by me. No one is allowed to reproduce this without my express permission.

Music featured in Pinny Gig and my showreel are owned by Gareth Dowle.

There’s a space advertised on AWN for a 2D trad. animator for a collection of children’s poems. Simplistic/alternative styles desired. So I’ve played around with one of the example poems, Mary Miranda Melissa McGurk - the tale of a girl whose obsession with knowledge leads to her own demise - to gauge some character designs for me to work from for the examples, then the simple style ideas.

McGurk III

ABOVE: some post initial sketches of the main character, McGurk. The bottom left corner shows the draft character I went from. Top centre was an idea for the opening I had, where the main character, as a stick person, steps out of a book with flipping pages. Centre is McGurk studying, her head size increasing, then bottom right was where the simple style started to come in, with McGurk’s head fully inflated.

McGurk I

ABOVE: Some more thoughts, this time with felt tip pen and scrap book paper, which is lively and fun to draw on! The simple style is starting to come through a little more.

McGurk II

ABOVE: Thoughts for a later scene, where McGurk’s head is simply swelling with useless facts.

Bron

PS. As always, all work submitted here is owned by me, myself and I, and no one may reproduce this without my express permission.

Mary Miranda Melissa McGurk is owned by Shel Silverstein and Edward Gorey.

There’s lots of things I want; rollerblades, a Nintendo DS, a bikini body, rollerblades, a house, a job, rollerblades… but I’ve realised tonight what I truly want in my heart of hearts. Apart from the rollerblades.

Stories.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done a fair bit in my life so far; performed at Edinburgh Fringe, broken somone’s arm during an ice skating performance, been drenched with urine (still warm) at festivals, gained various judo injuries, dropped over waterfalls in a kayak blind, jumped off 12ft bridges because someone told me to and so on.  But there’s so much more I want to do, so many more stories I want to collect.

There’s other things I can do, I know, but I decided a few weeks back what I want to do.  America is calling, the pull is strong, the industry is ripe.  All I want is a year, max, to make my mark in San Francisco, CA, and collect stories of life on the West Coast.

If needs be, I’ll collect those stories anywhere in the UK.  Anywhere in the world.  So long as when I return to where I came from, I can weave tales over a glass of diet coke.

And so long as I’ve travelled back to where I came from on my rollerblades.  Oh yes, I would rollerblade from California to Yorkshire given half the chance!

Bron

PS. If you’ve not already spotted it, check out my final year film, Pinny Gig

See disclaimer below.

This is my final year film: Pinny Gig

Pinny Gig was designed so that I could have fun with what I was animating, I didn’t want something the audience had to think too much about (or me, for that matter.)

The lead character himself was animated traditionally, then coloured using Shake and Photoshop.  The drumkit was modelled and animated in Maya.  My good friend and modelling genius Laurie Priest rigged and modelled the drum kit.  Then taught me how to animate in Maya!

The two layers were then combined in After Effects, with additional effects and clean up produced here too.

Sorry the file is so small, but the genuine article’s taking too long to post.  Seriously, I’ve watched Mulan and Road to El Dorado in the time I left the file to upload, but nothing happened.  Or at least, not a lot did.  This dinky version is missing a couple of edits, which aren’t detrimental to the plot or the animation.  Hopefully I’ll be able to upload the proper version on a faster computer when I have more time.

Bron

** PLEASE NOTE:  All material shown here is property of Bronwyn Dowle and the University of Lincoln.  Recreation of work shown here is not allowed without my express permission. **

The following are line tests of walks I produced in 2006/7.

The first is a two legged human walk, which I think is quite spunky and a good start considering it was so early on : Walk I

Next is a quadraped walk, using a character designed for a project last year. The sheep character had no specified joints, which made him interesting to move. This was only a draft line test, which is why there’s not a lot of detail on him: Walk II

Another quadraped walk, same project as above, but a lion this time. Feline quadrapeds walk differently to other quadrapeds, which in a sad way interests and excites me. Again, very drafty: Walk III

Finally, the most recent walk I’ve produced. This was a test for my final year film (2007/8) to get the movement of the rodent (a guinea pig, for the record) and to test the colouring technique on Photoshop: Walk IV

Bron

** PLEASE NOTE:  All material shown here is property of Bronwyn Dowle and the University of Lincoln.  Recreation of work shown here is not allowed without my express permission. **