Brian Anderson » Everyday Notes | Brian Anderson

Heroes Comic Con Banner

Administrator — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:04:07 +0000

New banner for Heroes Con

Here’s one of two banners I had printed for Comic Con. Thanks to some help from friends, it came out better than I had hoped. Obviously the focus is on the new book. If you’re headed to Heroes Con this year, look for this banner. Although we won’t be posing next to it for the entire show.

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

Drawing Trains.

Administrator — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:28:57 +0000

I’m pretty sure I’ve done some train strips in the past. I love drawing steam engines. In essence the idea behind this Sunday strip was an excuse to draw some trains. On the down side, they take a lot longer to draw, depending on how much detail you include. I’m forcing myself to use chunks of black and white highlights to suggest detail rather than draw in every rivet.

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

Making Picture Books with Bears

Administrator — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:11:06 +0000

Right. Now that I’ve got new fabric on the website, time to start getting some fresh content on here. Starting with sharing my process for two new picture book projects. I’ll post process images, outlines, notes and dummies here along the way.

Let’s start with some bears. Drawing this book on a large format Moleskine with watercolor paper. So my first step is to get some finished illustrations cranked out. These serve two purposes. First, it helps me get a clear vision of the style of the book. And second, when I send the dummy off to my agent, it gives her and whomever she presents it to, a definitive image of what I’m going for.

So the picture in this post is the initial pencils. Once I’m happy with these, I’ll scan it in and do the finishes in Photoshop. No detailed inking on this book. All pencil tones and probably color washes. Although I will experiment with bold, thick paints when I get to that stage. We’ll see.

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

Office in an iPad

Administrator — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:41:17 +0000

Well, slowly but surely I’m doing a lot of work on the iPad. Writing this post in “poster”, which, so far, is fantastic. And I’ll drop in the pic for this post from “Paper” which is an elegantly simple notebook app. “Paper” makes it super simple to sketch out picture book dummies. Kind of like stuffing a bunch of moleskin eps into your iPad.

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

Villainous Turtles from Boston

Administrator — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 01:38:56 +0000

The villain: a turtle from Boston. Now this would be fun to voice cast.

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

New site…sort of.

Administrator — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 21:41:47 +0000

Now that I’m not hosting the comic here anymore, I’ve opened up the design to all the available HTML and social media goodies. Still lots to add and test, but expect a lot more posts and images and even videos.

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

Dog eat Doug is moving!

Administrator — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:34:01 +0000

First off, thanks for all the kind emails filled with concern on my whereabouts. I was not abducted by time traveling meerkats. Although that may have been less taxing. We were in the midst of re-locating to a new state. And now we are here and happy. Also, anything plugged in was unplugged so I could keep up with deadlines. So far so good.

And now for the news. The official homepage for me and for “Dog eat Doug” will shortly teleport over to Alpha Comedy. It is still in Beta. When it hatches from that form, you’ll be able to read DeD in real time. No more two week delay. And I’ll be hanging out there in real time. No longer will I have to spend hours mucking through databases looking for comment spam or trying to figure out where the entire month’s worth of posts from May of 2007 went. See, the exceptional people at my syndicate will be running the techy, behind the scenes show. And they will be adding more features as Alpha comedy grows.

If you want to swing by now, just click the link at the end of the post. Still some bugs to iron out and a bit of CSS speckling to be done. Any feedback is welcome. I’ll leave this site up for now until, just like our new house, all the boxes at Alpha Comedy are unpacked:

http://alphacomedy.com/user/profile/23.html

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

Petit Perfection: Tiny little pens

Administrator — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:15:32 +0000

I’ve probably mentioned this pen before, but had to do it again. I have the entire line of Pilot Petit pens: marker, brush and fountain. Gotta tell ya, these little buggers are workers. And the fountain pen, so far, is the most reliable one I’ve ever used (keep in mind I’m left handed so finding a fountain pen that works is a tad harder than snagging the Holy Grail in a cave with Indy).

The brush pen is a micro dream to carry around in your pocket. Ya, forgot that part, maybe the best: they are ultra portable. The cap stacks on the tail end so it feels like a normal writing instrument.

And it’s pretty simple to refill the cartridges with whatever you want. Pop in your favorite ink or a light watercolor wash. Do avoid using Lama spit as that does clog these up a touch.

If you haven’t guessed by now, you can grab these lovelies over at Jetpens.com.

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

Making Picture Books

Administrator — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:51:58 +0000

These are the pencils for a page from “Monster Chefs”. I’ll try and remember to take pics of the whole process.

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer

Pen Case Review

Administrator — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:11:11 +0000

So this little case is my favorite. And that’s saying a lot considering the amount of cases I have. It’s shocking how many writing instruments fit in this thing. Kind of a TARDIS for pens. A lot of my other cases eventually stop zippering up. No fault of the case, I plump these things up like Morgan Spurlock at the Golden Arches.

With the variety of stuff you can pack this thing with it makes a swell portable studio. Open it up, lay it out, and you got almost everything you need at your fingertips. The middle flap works surprisingly well. I initially thought if you filled it with pens the thing would never close. Not true. And the reverse side of the flap is perfect for holding leads and erasers.

I’ll be ordering up another one of these and hope that maybe they’ll make a larger version. Grab one at jetpens.com (where else?).

Brian Anderson - Cartoonist and Writer