Andreas Besser

Overview

His bright, expressive character illustrations and animations are what make Andreas Besser so popular with his clients. With a light, cartoony style, his work is a hit in the children’s market, editorial, publishing, and more.

Growing up in the former East Germany – and now based in Berlin - Andreas loved drawing as a child and one of his earliest inspirations was Asterix as drawn by the French comic artist Albert Uderzo. Today, he enjoys the work of Pascal Campion, who works with light in unique ways, and the unique line expressions of Felix Scheinberger.

When he’s away from the graphics tablet and sketchpads, Andreas loves to wake up on a campsite in the mountains to the smell of instant coffee. He also takes part in interesting trading games where the objective is to increase the value of your item with each trade. For instance, he started with three bottle caps and now has a Sudoku computer.

Training

Before studying design and illustration in Würzburg, Germany, Andreas did an apprenticeship as a commercial artist, and trained as a printer. He worked in the Berlin studio Cartoon-Film as well, picking up plenty of skills and inspiration.

Approach

First Andreas does sketches and clean drawings with pencil and paper, and sometimes paints using watercolours, ink, or even coffee! After scanning them in he works on them further using a graphics tablet. He can animate both the traditional way using pencil and paper, or with animation software on his PC.

Styles

Andreas has a very simple method of adjusting his cartoony style – he holds his pencil differently and works either more expressively, or tight and detailed, depending on the look he wants to achieve. From there, he comes up with interesting characters with unique faces, for each new project. Often he’ll work with real fur textures, adding them to cartoon shapes, when creating animal characters. Andreas also likes to keep things minimal, using a simple shape as the basis for a character – such as his cube weightlifter.

Client List

• MONTBLANC
• T-Systems
• Nintendo DS
• Fox and Sheep
• ZDF
• 3Sat
• Warner Bros
• Sparkasse Berlin
• Cartoon-Film
• Deutsche Post
• Meissener Porzellan
• Wir sind Helden
• Tivola
• Verlag Friedrich Oetinger
• Carlsen
• American Greetings
• Gore
• Tessloff
• TigerBooks
• Skandia
• HABA
• Kosmos
• Scholz & Friends