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Author ProfilesBrianne Drouhard
Brianne Drouhard is the creator of Billie the Unicorn. She grew up in the boonies of eastern Washington State, and attended Innerspark (or CSSSA at the time) to learn about animation during high school. For her Senior year project, Brianne made a film called Yippie, the Accident Prone Dog (set to Harry Nilsson's The Puppy Song) which earned her a National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) award and a Scholastic scholarship for college. Brianne enrolled in the Character Animation program at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and started focusing more on design and illustration. She took a summer internship at July Films, which made the film My Little World, and graduated in 2002. Her first job was in video games and worked on the Xbox title Backyard Wrestling. Brianne fondly remembered "animating men punching, kicking, throwing, and hugging each other." However better things were soon to come. On the side, she won the Regional Maple Leaf's Ben Wick Award for illustrating "The Teenage Survival Handbook" in 2003. She did freelance design for Nickelodeon's My Life as a Teenage Robot, and soon got into the thick of the Hollywood animation industry. In quick succession, she has contributed to many popular TV series such as Cartoon Network's Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Ben Ten, Teen Titans, Class of 3000, and Transformers: Animated. She is a regular contributor to art shows at Gallery Nucleus (Alhambra, CA) and other locales. Upon further reflection, Brianne said, "It's abnormal I think to carry an obsession like animation to adulthood, but my parents were very supportive...They kept me supplied with art books, paper, pencils, and let me travel to go to California when I was in high school. They let me grow. They told my brother and I we could be whatever we wanted, except farmers." And so goes Billie into a brave new world... Visit her official site www.briannedrouhard.com and blog at potatofarmgirl.blogspot.com. Reviews
"...something about Drouhard's art grabs me and makes me feel like a kid again. She's got the gift of being able to infuse her art with storytelling; the characters she draws are expressive from head to toe. She often uses bright colors, and every piece looks like it belongs in a giant picture book (she has one of those by the way - it's called Billie the Unicorn)." - Nerdist "Brianne is an artist mainly working in the animation industry. She has contributed character designs, storyboards and directing for Cartoon Network, Marvel, Sony, Disney, Warner Bros. Animation, and Nickelodeon." - Ink and Paint Folk podcast |
GalleryClick on an image to enlarge.
Reviews"...we hosted a signing with one of my favorite artists, Brianne Drouhard, for her first book: Billie the Unicorn.... I've been a proud fan of Brianne and her work since she left a sample copy of her sketchbook at our booth at SDCC years ago. We've watched her career grow since then.. from recent grad of CalArts... to animator.. character designer... storyboard artist... and now author/illustrator." - Stuart Ng "...her artwork is bursting with friendly colors and joyful expressions, and much of it focuses on superpowered ladies who, for all of their adorableness, can hold their own in a fight. Drouhard happily wears her influences on her sleeve, from the animation of Hanna-Barbera and Rankin/Bass to magical girl anime and the works of Osamu Tezuka. Her background in traditional animation pops off the page in her character design, body language and her surprising use of soft colors." - Comics Alliance |
Banana Cat
