Welcome to the offical Donovan Bixley website
Here's what I've been up to lately...
BREAKING NEWS – BEST SELLING BOOK-DOING-GUY-THING-A-ME [September 2010]
Wahoo - I can officially now say that I've done a best seller! In the last week of August "Good Fullas" outsold all other books in NZ – including all vampire related teenage novels! Sales are getting stronger in the start of September so watch this space to see what the final sales count adds up to.
Good Fullas Book Launch [August 2010]
This week saw the launch of Marc Ellis' "Good Fullas". I went up to Auckland for the release party which was a blast. I had the brilliant idea that I would do a big mural of all the Kiwi blokes who were at the party - and then had a panic attack as to whether I could actually pull it off. Not that I find drawing difficult - more the pressure of doing an accurate likeness of someone in only a few minutes. Anywho - it was a great success and as the evening wore on the mural became a focus of attention, with many people confirming that I was "a bloody genius" - ha ha - it's easy to impress people who have been drinking for 3 hours. Marc had arranged an hilarious presentation of some classic kiwi fullas - who had the audience rolling with laughter in a very un PC manner. Just like the book will - we hope. The lovely people at Hachette (publishers) have high hopes for the sales - and so so I. As I have said to my lovely wife for many years (and as Jane Austin's Mrs Bennett said long before me) - "That will soon throw him into the path of other wealthy men" (in my case publishers).
Kiwi version of an old classic [June 2010]
I've just finished the roughs for a new book - due out in November. It's a classic kids song which some people might think is incredibly tiresome - but I couldn't possibly comment. It amazes me how boring some illustrators can be - they seem to just do the bare minimum. I've had heaps of fun making this fairly basic story into something really cool. There's always so much you can add if you just take the time - and both adults and kids love all the hidden little features and on-going background stories. You have to keep the parents interested - otherwise they'll never want to read it to their kids again no matter how much the kids plead. The trick is not to overpower the main story. The main action and narrative need to be clear and obvious and easy to follow. Then you can add all sorts of background details which they can discover each time they read. That's what will keep them coming back. I can't wait to get stuck into the final illys. Have to have it all done by the start of August - so I better get cracking.
Extreme Rolling Gets a Bixley T [May 2010]
My mate Liam, of Deepseed Skydive Clothing, is a sponsor of Dale Elliot, who is wheelchairing his way from Melbourne to Darwin. The journey, on specialised wheelchairs is to raise funds and awareness for clubfooted children in Africa. My contribution was this illy of Dale - smoking it up on his handpowered bike-chair-thingy for a limited edition Deepseed T. Was a bit of a laugh - and when I saw the Extreme Rolling logo (with flames out the back) I immediately though of those old Bazuka Joe Bubblegum wrappers from the 80s. I've been dying to do one of those illys for ages. Anyway - everyone was very happy. You can check out their progress at extremerolling
New Book From Kiwi Personality [April 2010]
A new book by Kiwi personality Marc Ellis, has just been given the Donovan Bixley treatment. Marc Ellis' "Good Fullas" is a modern take on Barry Crump's "Bastards I Have Met" - a halarious poke at kiwi blokes and the most un-PC book I've done ever. Marc has a good eye for picking out the foibles of Kiwi men - and a thousand rib tickling stories to go with it - some are more sphincter-tightening. Hence it was fantastic fun to work on! A real change from the educational and children's books I do - which are often extremely PC. Whilst doing the character illustrations for "Good Fullas" I would often get feed back like - 'make him fatter', 'put some more scars on his face', or 'ad some nostril hairs'. Great fun. It should be a really good seller too - with Marc Ellis' last book chalking up 45,000 copies. So of course I'm happy to tie myself to his coat tails and be carried along. Should be off to the printers in May and then in the shops mid-year. Keep an eye out for it.
Macbeth gets a makeover [April 2010]
I'm very excited because I've been asked to design the set for a new production of Macbeth. It's been a few years since I designed a set for Les Miserables but this will be quite different. Like books, it's a long process which will take a year or so and I'm trying to think of something really cool and different. Below is a rough skecth - I wanted it to be all expressionist and falling apart - reflecting the crumbling nature of the whole play – look mate this is what you're fighting over! It's all jagged and tilted like Macbeth's mind. Also I wanted to have all sorts of cool shapes that our lighting man (the very talented Shawn Hately) can do some awesome things with. Anywho - have to wait and se now if the money is forthcoming - this kind of stuff isn't cheap to make :-)
Future projects [March 2010]
I'm really cracking on with my next book now. After some initial interest from a UK agent last year, I've been doodling around. Mainly cutting out the first eight chapters and cutting to the chase. Also adding a bit more humour - which never goes amiss. "Monkey Boy" is a YA Novel, set during the Napoleonic Wars - so of course there is lots of trouble for our hero to get into. Also it has parts of the story told in comic form. I've been working hard to try and get both words and pics to do what they each do best and not double up (I can't stand those YA Books with boring still images of something we've just read about - what a waste of time!). Also as an illustrator I'm desperate to do pics of cool things I want to draw - battleships, ghosts, people getting their heads split in half - all those great things that 11 year old boys love. Best of all I've been cracking into those illustrations - I think it's really important to show the publishers what I'm trying to achieve. NOTE: This is normally NOT the way to go about publishing - but it worked for me on "Faithfully Mozart" - show them the finished product and they can't say no. Should have it all ready to go in May/June. I've popped up a few new images on my Portfolio page.
Christmas Daughters Inspire Christmas Book [Dec 2009]
Being a princess is every girl’s dream. So my youngest daughter Sparkle was over the moon when she got to model as a princess for the illustrations in my latest children’s book A Right Royal Christmas. Funnily enough both Sparkle and author Lucy Davey’s daughter Holly Grace were born at Christmas (hence the festive names). Equally funny is that I had never met Lucy before - some coincidence huh? I did get to meet Lucy and her lovely family when Sparkle and I went up to Auckland for the launch of A Right Royal Christmas at St Helliers Library. That's the first time I've ever met one of the authors I've worked with.
I put a great deal of effort into this book with the hope that it will become a Christmas classic and get some overseas sales. Signs are looking good so far as Scholastic reprinted it before it was even released. The cover image is a homage to one of my heroes - Genardy Spirin.