Author Archives: Brian Hagen

“Hell”

Posted May 9, 2015 by Brian Hagen

I’m creating dozens of cartoons for an E.S.L. pronunciation guide. The goal is to teach the students the vowel sounds, and my goal is to make learning more fun and memorable. Fun flash cards to relieve the monotony of memorization.

There are some particularly juicy words to draw. This is one.

This is the first project I’ve used the dot patterns to add grey tones. With the black dots, even a black-and-white copy machine can print shaded cartoons — and they look wonderful.

“The Credit Cards That Give You Free Hotel Stays”

Posted May 6, 2015 by Brian Hagen

Lifehacker.com, 2015 "The Credit Cards That Give Your Free Hotel Stays" — Lifehacker.com, 2015
“The Credit Cards That Give Your Free Hotel Stays”

I gave myself a challenge with this illustration: tell the story with no humans.

Who knew that a modern hotel lock would be the one thing I couldn’t pull out of my imagination? The keycard was the key detail.

“How to Overcome Your Fear of Confrontation”

Posted May 5, 2015 by Brian Hagen

The idea was the easy part. Red Riding Hood and the wolf burst into my mind as soon as I saw the word “confrontation” in this article’s title. But how could I best do this under a tight deadline? That was tough.

Here’s the key: I never got rid of the original sketch. It’s right there under the black ink, giving energy and 3-D shading to the art.

I also limited the colors to 4 (plus black and white). The simplified colors just told the story of confrontation better. Little Red looks far angrier in all red, especially when contrasted with the 3 cool colors: green, purple and blue.

This was created using Manga Studio 5. Little by little, I’m discovering the power of this inexpensive & amazing program.