Bronwyn Coveney Illustrations - Updates and New Stuff

Remembering a Title This Time

So, Bron's been a busy little lobster. While I was animating Mooch I got a message from another staff member at ITV Fixers. My Mooch client had passed on my details to their colleague who was in need of an illustrator.

The project was for a healthy eating booklet with stickers featuring fruit and vegetable based characters. My client wanted the characters to be suitable for a young age group, with appeal to encourage them to eat more fruit and veg.

To the left are the characters I came up with. Apple is the bonny girl-next-door fruit, with understated beauty. Banana is the playful, happy member of the gang, always smiling and up for fun. Carrot is the laid back, heart throb with easy charm and appeal. Strawberry is sassy and stylish, an absolute stunner! Tomato is the shy yet friendly, intelligent one and finally Broccoli is the easy going, cool dude.

Both this project and the Mooch film have been completed now. A link to the Mooch film will no doubt appear on the Animations page, and the storyboards will also be available on the Storyboards and Sequentials page very soon.

I am still working on Earl's project Hell's Host though it's on hold at the moment as I am moving yet again. The new home of Bronwyn Coveney Illustrations will now be down South in Middlesex, thanks to my husband getting a job there. Right now I'm surrounded by boxes and up to my elbows in cleaning. Moving day on the 18th, which means that as of next week I'll be without internet for a while. But if anyone would like to get in contact, my alternative email address is bronwyncoveney@googlemail.com, which I can access from my swanky phone.

A while it has certainly been. Don't assume that just because I don't blog every other week that I'm not busy. In fact the less I blog, the busier I usually am.

So, what have I been busy doing? Well, aside from moving home in April and only just finishing to unpack now, I've been commissioned for not just one but two films as an animator.

The first film is for Gwynn D. Earl of London. The project took my eye as the content is wonderfully surreal and wacky; a man with a bubble on his head tries to get to the doctors on a train on the hottest day of the year, while trying to avoid ticket-happy, bunny-rabbit conductors, a pyromaniac teddy bear and the rest of humanity. It's a perfect platform for slap-stick violence and Earl's own brand of wacky humour.

For Earl's film - the third episode of the Hell's Host series, Some Like it Really Hot - I am producing storyboards and animating the aforementioned pyromaniac teddybear, Gloria. I have uploaded a rough draft of a walk cycle for Gloria, check it out on the Animations page.

The second film is for ITV Fixers, whose aim is to help young people voice issues or concerns through various medias, including TV and film, fly leafletting and volunteering. The film I will be working on is for the Tyne Tees region, on a film about autism. The young person who approached Fixers wanted to show the problems faced on a day to day basis by creating a short drama. During the piece, a doodle of a favourite character comes to life in a sketch pad, which is where Bron comes in.

Impressed by the flour sack animations on the Animations page, I was asked to produce a short, traditionally animated piece to bring this favoured character to life. This character needed to be loveable with expressive eyes that would do all the talking for the film. Thus Mooch was born. Mooch - the above character - is slowly coming to life through storyboards at the moment, so keep checking back for more. In the meantime, have a look in the Scrapbook for some expression sheets of Mooch.

"Mother Seacole" and "Equiano in Africa"

Way back in January I got in touch with Jason Young about a project which - ironically - I am no longer working. The focus instead has been on four other films: "Mother Seacole" (also "The British Hotel"), "Equiano in Africa", "The Novelist" and "The Pastorate." For all of them I have been working as a storyboard artist, and for "Mother Seacole" I have also been working as a concept artist.

After much promising, I have finally put up some of the concept art from "Mother Seacole" plus a couple of panels from "Equiano in Africa." The "Mother Seacole" work was all produced by hand using either pencil or watercolour effect. For "Equiano"'s storyboards I have been using my Wacom tablet. The effect I've aimed for is a more painted style, quite different to the cartoon animals I did for Hull Animal Welfare.

On the subject of storyboards, I have added a brand spanking new feature to the site! On the Illustrations drop down menu you can now access the Storyboards and Sequentials page for actual pages of storyboards and any comics I work on. Awesome.

Spring Time at the Hull Animal Welfare Trust

This might be something I pop into my 27 Facts page, but for a time I volunteered in the cattery at the Hull Animal Welfare Trust.

Time constraints mean that I can't go there often now; in fact, the only time I seem to go at the moment is after I've been for a blood test to make myself feel better. But I can still help out, it seems, by offering my services.

Well, I say offer. The cattery manager knows I'm an illustrator, and has already approached me once to produce advertising for an event. She knows an opportunity when she sees it. This time she needed a poster for an advertising campaign at a garden centre for Easter Sunday.

The turnaround time has been pretty quick. Literally, I was told about the project on Tuesday, with a draft deadline of friday and a final hand in date of Monday. I managed to complete the poster in a day.

I produced it using my new toy; my super shiny Wacom Tablet (graphics tablet)! This is also the tool I'm using for my current round of storyboard colouring and editing, though the style is more painted than cartoony.

Despite the fast turnaround time, and the grumbles of having other work to do, I'm glad that even though I'm not there to feed, groom, clean, disinfect, wash litter trays or clean up cat sick, I can still help out the people and animals I love so much.

In addition to Mother Seacole, I have been commissioned to storyboard parts of three other films. Check out my updated IMDB account!

A Myriad of News Items

Sincerest apologies avid followers, I have been a wee bit busy of late.

Though I come with all kinds of exciting things to... erm... excite you!

First off, the image on the left is of a tattoo I partially edited, partially designed. My friend approached me and asked for help with a tattoo she wanted. She showed me the original design and explained what she wanted doing. Specifically she wanted an "S" in the belly of the phoenix and she wanted the tail completely re hauling. Along the way, I also made subtle changes to the wing area too.

She loved the final design, and got it inked onto the inside of her forearm. The piece looks awesome, and my friend is extremely happy with it.

So that was a nice little side project; tattoo designer!

Next update: part of the reason why I have been absent is because I have been commissioned by a film maker to do concept art and storyboarding on a short film and a promo for what will be a feature. Hopefully some work in progresses will make their way on soon.

And finally, leading on nicely from that little update, I now have an IMDB account (Internet Movie Database - archive of films, cast and crew.) When I have fourteen days to make use of the free service I'm sure I'll pop up a photo and "resume", but in the meantime, check it out: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3797798/

One final note, I have scrapped the Prices page of the website. It was untidy, not necessary and means that you have to now email me and talk to me if you want a quote! Ha! Though as a bonus for you, it means that I'll be able to tailor a more suitable price for your project and budget. Speaking of speaking, I have (rather embarrassingly) forgotten the password to my business email. From now on I'll be using bronwyn@bronwyncoveney.com, I'm very sorry if you have already contacted me on the old one.

Bron

Letterhead

I sat and racked and racked and racked my brains over a letterhead. It needed to be something unique to my work, so hand drawn was obvious. I didn't want to use any of the characters I'd used previously, and it had to be mine, and something I'd be happy with for a long time.

After much drafting, I went back to basics. My original business card had been a line drawing of Ryan the guinea pig (which can be seen at the start of my showreel.) Ryan the guinea pig is the soul of my film Pinny Gig (see Animations) and features in the portfolio. I'm very happy with him being the face of business!

Some more general updates: the Scrapbook page has been changed so that most recent stuff goes first. The above header will probably replace the current header, and when that happens, the background will also get a make over.

Offline, I am currently working on a couple of short films for a producer down south as a character designer/concept artist, and possibly also storyboard artist. I'll have a few snap shots to put up from them soon.

Feature in the Red Dwarf Project

Previously I'd been slightly opposed to putting a blog on a website. Then recently I'd thought about all the current changes and up to the minute (ish) updates I'd actually quite like to put on here. So this is why I've started blogging on here. Less about the heartbreaks of everyday life but more about the new and interesting stuff that happens in my work.

My client of three projects, J. Bastian, has been keeping a blog himself recently, about how he came to write Nain Rouge. This week has been about how he found his perfect illustrator (yo!) and thought it would be share the article. Here's just a wee taster:

It was amazing to me that she could draw with such speed and accuracy, capturing even more than I thought I wanted in the story. She was able to take my ideas and blend them with her creativity to create images that took the story to another level.

The whole article can be found here or by going to his website - http://www.josephandjosef.com - via the Red Dwarf Project.