Don’t be alarmed by the header. I’ll get to the robbery part in a minute…

Visiting New York is always a fun time. When you are from quiet and pleasant Minnesota, the hectic craziness of New York is always like drinking a triple expresso… a total rush for a while, followed by a crash and a headache. I can handle about four days in NYC before I am on overload. Those four days are a blast, though!

Today we swung by the MAD offices to hang out and bum a free lunch. The editors and art staff at MAD are always really good at pretending they like me, and that makes it pleasant to visit. Recently MAD moved from the fifth floor to the fourth floor of the 1700 Broadway building, and I had not seen the new offices. They are smaller but they have some nice displays of originals and other goodies. They also started a ‘Wall of Shame” for contributors to draw on, and I added a little doodle to it. Here’s a few pictures from the visit:

My kids Victoria, Tommy and Gabrielle in the MAD conference room.

Original Norman Mingo painting, including the
definitive Alfred painting from issue #29

MAD’s hard(ly) working art dept! From left: Sam Viviano,
Ryan Flanders and Doug Thompson

Now for the part about being robbed. We are staying right in Times Square, and spend a lot of time seeing shows and walking around the area. There are a lot of street vendors here selling everything from bad knock-off handbags (the good knock-offs are on Canal St. in SoHo) to cheap knick-knacks and awful photo prints. There are a number of street artists as well, including caricaturists. They are all over the streets, but on 42nd St. between Broadway and 8th is a concentrated number of caricaturists and portrait artists (I have to give props to MAD editor Charlie Kadau for informing me of this). I love going down there and looking at the different artist’s displays of “samples”… not because they are any good, but because the majority of them are prints of other artist’s work ripped off from the internet. Anna and I walked down there tonight, which was bad timing because Broadway is “dark” on Mondays (no musicals or shows) so there were fewer artists on the street than usual. Still, I was not disappointed. I saw lots of rip-offs of Kruger and Jan Op de Beeck, and one or two of colleagues of mine like Joe Bluhm and others. I spotted the following two of mine:

My Marilyn Monroe. Nice print job!

My Will Smith PhotoShopped onto a cheesy lollypop body

I’ll go back tomorrow night and see if more are up. I didn’t confront the artist… no point. These guys are trying to earn a few bucks, and this kind of thing happens all the time. I’ve always said nobody gets anywhere in life doing that kind of thing, it’s bad karma. Beside, only an idiot would look at the multitude of vastly different drawing styles on a display board and then at the actual drawing the artist is working on and think that artist did those samples… but then again there is no shortage of idiots walking around Times Square.

This last one is a riot. I walked past one artist who’s display samples were mainly prints of Jan Op de Beeck’s work. Generally these guys pick celebrity faces to display, but his guy got at least one image from Jan’s website page containing his drawings of other caricaturists. This is a drawing of Orlando artist and former NCN president Keelan Parham, on display in the heart of Times Square!

Keelan’s famous!!!

Keelan and his family were actually planning on joining us in NYC until personal plans got in the way. It would have been hilarious if we all would have walked up together and he would have seen his own face staring back at him from some artist’s display board! Maybe next time…

Q: How do I get started doing freelance illustration?

A: Making a living solely on freelance work is a tough and scary thing to do. There is no steady paycheck, and sometimes waiting for that phone to ring with a job seems like it takes forever. Other times you are so swamped you can’t keep up. It’s not a life for the faint of heart.

First, I’d suggest for beginners to find a secondary source of income so your freelance work is not what you rely on to pay the rent. I used my live caricature work and businesses for this purpose, and it allowed me to take my time building up both my work and my client base. Barring having a rich uncle to support you, it’s a lot less stressful to “break into the business” with a paycheck you can count on on the side. The stereotype of a struggling actor waiting tables to make ends meet is not undeserving, and visual “starving artists” are similarly common.

The term “breaking in” is a misnomer. You do not burst thought the freelance wall into a room full of work. It’s more like slowly chipping though that wall until you construct a door you can go though at will. That first job is always the hardest, however. Many art directors are only interested in working with established artists. This is because they are just as interested in someone who is easy to work with and who can hit a deadline as someone who’s work is exceptional. That’s a bit of a catch 22, so getting that first job and, more importantly doing a professional job on it, is important.

The first step is to have a good portfolio/promo materials. I’ve found few art directors have the time to want you to send them a full portfolio. Postcards and tearsheet promos plus a website has replaced the traditional portfolio. The aspiring freelancer must have professional looking promo materials. This isn’t all that expensive anymore, thanks to computers and ink jet printers or cheap 4 color printing. Still, it will take a little investment of money to get those materials put together. Promo pieces should consist of 2-4 images, and not be too big or unwieldy. 4 x 6 postcards are great, and letter sized pages are also good. Websites are a must and cheap to put up and maintain. Instant access to unlimited examples of your work. There are thousands of illustrator website out there to see the kind of formats are being used.

Once you have the promo stuff together, you need to get it in front of someone who wants to buy illustration. That’s one of the harder things to do. Getting started means thinking small and sending your promo stuff to smaller clients who are more willing to work with less experienced illustrators, and who pay less as well. Local publications are a great way to start. The free papers, local printers who do graphic design, local magazines… there are often many potential clients right in your immediate area. Look around and think about who would be looking for the kind of work you do.

One quick way to get your work out there is through a sourcebook. Sourcebooks are illustrator advertising books where artists buy a page or spread to show their work, and the publishers of the book distribute it to buyers of illustration. I did this for many years, with varying degrees of success. Yes, it does get your work out there, but there is something self defeating about putting a page of your artwork in a book with 500 to 1000 other artists trying to get the same jobs. It’s also very expensive, and you’ll need to get several jobs just to break even. Still it isn’t a bad idea if you have a few grand to blow and want to try it out. The Directory of Illustration and Showcase are two of the bigger sourcebooks to look into.

Direct mailing is another way to get your work out there. Every magazine published has a masthead with an address and the name of the art director in it. Go to your local big newsstand and look for magazines who’s subjects and styles seem like a match for the kind of work you do (I wouldn’t send sports related artwork samples to “Ladies Home Journal” for example). Buy a copy of the ones that fit, or if you are really cheap bring a notebook and copy the info out of the mastheads. Create a mailing list and send off your promo samples to the art directors. Go ahead and send it to Time and People if you feel you must, but I’d save those stamps and target smaller, niche type magazines. It’s the dirty little secret of all professional illustrators, even the big guns, that most of their income is from the smaller, niche magazines than the large publications. Send out a second mailing a month later, and from then on every 3 months or so. Always send out new images, not the smae ones over and over. You need to have you work on their desk when that lucky job comes in, but you don’t want to be a pest, either.

Finally, the best advice I ever got on how to be a successful freelancer was from the great David Levine. He dispensed this advice while we were utilizing side-by-side urinals after a panel discussion he was on was , which for some wierd reason makes it seem unmistakeably genuine… you do not bullshit a guy peeing next to you. He said being successful freelancing was about knowing people and building relationships. For example, say an artist does work for an art director, who has lunch with another art director and mentions the job the artist did for him or her when the subject of a particular style of work comes up. The second art director may well call said artist for another job. Art directors change jobs all the time and go to different publications, often calling artists they previously worked with for the new publication, etc. All this is predicated on the artist in question doing a good and professional job, of course. If you are hard to work with or unreliable, you won’t get work no matter how many people you know.

Freelancing for a steady living is about building a client base. That means finding a core group of clients who provide steady work, while still pursuing new clients. You can’t get comfortable with just a few steady ones, because no client lasts forever. Art directors leave and new ones want a different look, and other things happen beyond your control. Stay patient and confident, and continue to produce new promos and send them to new potential clients. Above all work hard on even the smallest of jobs. It’s a long climb, and even the most successful still worry about the next phone call. Keep at it and don’t let anyone tell you it’s not possible.

I should have mentioned with that last post, I am in New York City right now with Anna and the kids for the “Harry, Carrie and Garp” event, which takes place on the evenings of Aug. 1st and 2nd. The charities that will be benefiting from the performances are Doctors Without Borders, an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries, and the other is The Haven Foundation, a charity that supports writers and artists who can no longer support themselves because of accidents or illness. Worthy receipients both.

For Mother’s Day this year I got my wife a trip to New York City with me and three of my kids (left the autistic one at home with a friend, she HATES NYC) for 4 nights and tickets to an event at Radio City Music Hall. The event was something I came across on the Internet and was so perfect for us I could not pass it up. It’s a charity event called “An Evening with Harry, Carrie and Garp”, featuring three authors reading from their works and interacting with the audience. The reason it is so perfect is that the three authors involved happen to each be a favorite of mine, my wife’s and my kids. The “Harry” part of the evening is of course J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books my kids read and reread (my wife and I are also fans). My wife’s favorite author is John Irving, who’s books include “A prayer for Owen Meany” and “The World According to Garp”, who will be reading as well (that’s the Garp part). I enjoy the work of a number of authors, but one who I continually return to like a favorite easy chair is Stephen King, who is the “Carrie” part of the equation.

King is an uber-popular novelist and as such often receives the typical critical poo-pooing that book-snob critics reserve especially for the prolific writers who’s books earn them many millions of dollars. They seem to have a problem with books which tend to be seen more often next to a beach chair with greasy sunscreen stains and pages swelled from getting splashed with over-clorinated pool water than on a mahogany table next to a brandy snifter and humidor. Not that King is universally vilified by the critics… far from it. He just seems to be viewed as a book-spewing formula author. I happen to think his writings deserve better than to be lumped into the same group as the James Pattersons , Mary Higgins Clarks and other book factories of the world.

Reading is a great joy for me, and a luxury I rarely have time for. My idea of the perfect vacation is a week, four novels and a patch of beach. I sometimes read to broaden my horizons, to provoke thoughts in new directions and to expand my mind, but usually I read for the pure, unadulterated enjoyment of immersing myself in a world visualized by my imagination and not by photons and cathode rays projected onto a glass screen. No electrical outlets required, thanks. My requirements for a good book are a good story, interesting characters I care about and engaging dialogue. Sounds easy but it’s surprising how many books lack a satisfying level of at least one of those elements. The subject matter is almost irrelevant, although I admit I lean toward adventure, mystery and intrigue than romance or tear jerkers… must be a guy thing.

Stephen King is known as a horror writer, of course, but I think his subject matter is almost irrelevant. I don’t read, re-read and listen to his books on my iPod because of the beasties and blood in them. They are favorites of mine because they contain good stories, interesting characters I care about and engaging dialogue… in spades. Oh, there’s the occasional vampire and evil clown from outer space, but the real magic of King’s writing comes in the little things: the conversations between characters during the quiet times, the humor, the rich descriptions of New England and the small towns and communities so many of his books are set in, the deep, flawed and completely believable characters that populate his world. Maybe the real hook with his work is the jarring collision of the real, lived in and down-to-earth normal world he so convincingly describes and the supernatural and fantastic elements that intrude upon them. That certainly makes for an interesting book, but it’s not the reason King’s books are so good. Sometimes I get the feeling the book’s supernatural subject matter is nothing more than a one sentence excuse for King to do what he really does well, and obviously loves: to write about people. Maybe one day he just comes up with an idea like “what if all the cell phones in the world suddenly turned people who were talking on them into murderous George Romero zombies?” and sets about writing the book. As is the case with most of King’s books, this one won’t REALLY be about cannibal phone-zombies, but about people and what makes them who they are. Getting chased by zombies is just what happens to them.

I’ve read all of King’s work, short, long and otherwise. My favorite contained story is a short novella called “Hearts in Atlantis”. Forget about the movie with Anthony Hopkins, that isn’t the same story. That one was based on another short story in the same collection entitled and including “Hearts in Atlantis” proper. This story is about college kids during the Vietnam war, and it is sad, uplifting, heartbreaking and hilarious all at the same time… no supernatural boogie men here. If you think Stephen King’s books are all monsters and ghosts, do yourself a favor and read “Hearts in Atlantis”. Another of my favorites is “It”. I was literally sad at the end that I was never going to get a chance to meet any of the characters, they were that engaging. The Dark Tower books really are in a class with Tolkein, Herbert and few others. I will write about those books another time. King has has a few misfires but I have yet to read something of his that caused me any regrets for giving them my time and attention.

If King has a weakness it’s that dreaded writer’s bane: the ending. More than a few of his books end up with your basic cosmic monster destruction scene, the universe in chaos, etc. He’s gotten over that in many ways, but for me the ending of a King book is just a necessary evil, if you’ll forgive the pun. Kings books are not about the end of the road, but the journey. Some people just can’t understand that. They get angry if their book isn’t finished up with a neat little bow. A good example is a recent short book by King called “The Colorado Kid”. This book is a study of what makes a story a story, and the human need for closure. The book is supposed to be about the mystery surrounding an unidentified body found on a beach in a New England island tourist town. One would think that by the end we’d know the who, why, where and what about the body. That’s what a story is, right? Well, we find out the who but the rest we never really know, and that really gets people up in arms. Reading the reader reviews on iTunes music store you’d think King had run up, knocked these readers on the head and stolen their wallets. They feel cheated and think the book terrible. They miss the point. King is demonstrating both the reader’s need for a complete story and how a book need not have that beginning, middle and end to be worth reading. King’s book isn’t really about that body, it’s about the three characters who share the tale and the human condition. By the way, the audiobook version of it, complete with the yankee accents and speech patterns, is priceless.

I just listened to King’s “Salem’s Lot” on audiobook while doing my latest MAD job. That might be the 4th or 5th time I’ve listened to it. I’ve read it more than once also. That’s the thing about King’s books…because they are much more about the journey than the destination, his books can be revisited again and again. It’s like getting to know old friends all over again. I’ll enjoy listening to him read from his work at Radio City. Maybe one day I’ll have a chance to shake his hand and tell him how many times he’s made me wish I could really meet some of the people he’s written about. That’s a rare gift for an author.

I was hoping to put together a step by step tutorial of my digital coloring technique for MAD while working on this “Hell’s Kitchen” parody, but it has become obvious to me that a real tutorial will take a great deal of time to compile. I tend to paint areas in spurts and often render background elements completely before laying in flat foreground color, and that makes it hard to follow. Also, it’s apparent to me that I will have to use screen captures to demonstrate palettes, selections and brushes in order to illustrate the steps fully, rather than just saving the image itself as I go. That will be a time consuming process and this deadline won’t allow me the luxury. That said, I did save my painting at various stages to give some idea of the process. This was done in PhotoShop CS2 using the Wacom Cintiq. Details on prepping the page for coloring including scanning, etc. can be found in this post.

The completely colorless inked image is in a previous post below. Here is that same section of the splash with some color added. I always start in the background and work my way forward. I begin adding flat colors using the paintbrush tool. I turn off the pressure controlled opacity so the color is completely flat in most foreground areas, but in the background I like to use slightly transparent color so the palette is a bit more monochromatic. Not true monochrome at all, but just so the colors have a similar tint… it’s a little like atmospheric distortion. So, the pots and pans in the background all have a bluish tint like the mirror/glass surface behind. The kitchen on the show has a “red” side and a “blue” side, made up of small tiles of different shades of the color. I simulated this using the filter>pixelate>mosaic filter to create a somewhat tiled look, and then blurring it using the filter>blur>blure more filter. I don’t use filters much as I think they have an inescapable digital or surreal effect, but I’d still be painting tiny tile squares right now if I hadn’t. I also did some rendering on the pots and pans, glass and flames at this point. It’s easier to render background stuff fully before you work on the foreground. I start with some flat color added to the chef. (more…)

As promised, here is a scan of the inked version of the section of the splash page I had previously posted in pencil form:

When comparing the two, you can see where I added to and changed the drawing while inking. That all goes back to what I said before about the necessity of drawing while inking, and not just mechanically tracing the pencils. I changed his nose somewhat, added texture and more disarray to his hair, fleshed out some of the backgrounds and other details and used both crosshatching and a little bit of a wash to add some values. I am coloring the piece so a lot more values will come at that stage, but it helps to have some in the inks.

Back to work!

Can’t blog today, I’ve got inky fingers. I will scan the same image from “Hell’s Kitchen” in the after the ink stage tomorrow, so reader’s can track the progress. If I can I’ll do a tutorial with the image on the color process. In the meantime….

As promised, here is a quick peek of part of the pencil rough for the MAD “Hell’s Kitchen” parody. This is a “reality” show that starts with 12 contestants all trying to be the last chef standing to win their own resturant in Las Vegas. This is a caricature of the main antagonist, head chef Gordon Ramsey. He is a very interesting guy, very magnetic and highly volitile. He makes the show pretty entertaining. He also has a face that a caricaturist would salivate over… a heavy brow, craggy features and a nose like a potato glued to his face. This one is much better than my first attempt.

It’s likely this blog will feature the Dreaded Deadline Demon in the near future…

So far I have managed to enter something in this blog almost every day since it’s inception, although an argument can be made as to if I actually had anything to say all those days… but I digress. This little recurring feature, entitled “On the Drawing Board” will give visitors a look at some of the projects I’ve got in progress, complete with some images of the roughs or various other stages.

Right now I have three jobs in the works:

The Ralph Nader vs. GM images for the Museum of Tort Law- I just finished the color comps for this job. Not much to see yet, but here’s the finished pencils with a little color added. Currently in for review:

Marlin Company workplace poster- I do one of these a month at least for this company, and they are always a lot of fun. They are used as posters sent to subscribed businesses with messages like “teamwork” and such. This one is obviously for their October printings. Currently at the pencil rough stage:

MAD job: “Hell’s Kitchen” TV show parody- Just got this one last week with a nasty 10 day deadline. Should be in issue #470 on the stands in September. Currently at the rough layout stage. I posted a scan earlier but upon looking at it this morning decided it was terrible and will be redrawing it today. I’ll try and post a sneak peek later….

Q: How do I break into MAD?

A: If you want to break into MAD, the easiest way is with a grappling hook, 50 feet of rope, a glass cutter and suction cups. You can bribe your way in on Wednesdays with home baked cookies offered to Dick DeBartolo.

Seriously, getting into MAD is notoriously hard to do, but it isn’t quite the impenetrable fortress it was in the 70′s and 80′s. Back then MAD had their legendary freelancers in their prime, and there was frankly very little work they had in the magazine that one of their established and well known “Usual Gang of Idiots” was not available to do. It was ‘a closed shop’ as was quoted among hopeful freelancers. Today is a little bit different.

MAD‘s long time artists are slowing down, going into retirement, semi-retirement or just plain have less interest in tight deadlines and overwhelming amounts of work. Who can blame them? Their terrific work has defined the magazine for 60 years! Now that the magazine is in color, the dynamic has changed somewhat and artists who work in color have more of a shot at getting their chance than those who work in black and white only. The magazine is also striving to establish a more modern look and identity in the 21st century, and is more open to newer styles and different aesthetics than the traditional MAD look. These changes have opened the doors a little to new artist’s work. Given all that, MAD is still a tough nut to crack. In order to ‘break in’, you need three things firmly in place: have work that they like a lot, demonstrate professionalism and be in the right place at the right time.

Do work they like- This first point may be the hardest. MAD‘s idea of work they like isn’t necessarily the same as just “great work.” There are lots of artists that are terrific and that the editors and art staff are impressed by, but they feel their work just doesn’t fit the magazine. Many caricaturists fit this mold. I know of several who’s caricature work is exemplary, but who suffer from “caricaturist disease.” That’s a syndrome where a caricature artist thinks the world stops at the neck. They are so focused on the face they ignore the rest of the universe. MAD looks for artists who create their own world as seen through their own eyes, meaning the chairs, cars and toilets they draw have as much personality as their caricatures. MAD also looks for artists who can ‘sell a gag’ as I have mentioned before, meaning their artwork makes a written joke funnier and easier to understand. They also look for uniqueness. They don’t want Mort Drucker or Jack Davis clones. Finally, they are always looking for the “MAD feel”, which doesn’t seem to have a quantifiable definition.

Demonstrate Professionalism- This seems like an oxymoron as MAD is famous for self-deprecation and bucking the rules, but don’t let that facade fool you. These guys know their business and expect their freelancers to hit deadlines, do professional work and take art and editorial direction like a pro. The easiest way to demonstrate this is by having a body of work already established… in comics, magazine illustration, advertising, etc. It’s very, VERY hard to do work for MAD without having established credentials as a cartoonist or illustrator. MAD has been at the top of it’s genre for 50 plus years, and they don’t need to act as a proving ground for young, inexperienced talent. Unfortunately the MAD knock-offs that DID act as such a proving ground are basically all gone now. Having a portfolio with published work is basically a must.

Be in the right place at the right time- This means just get lucky. In order to get work from MAD they first must have a job available to give you. Here’s how the distribution of freelance work happens at MAD (as I understand it): First, the editorial and art staff meet with the features and articles that need art for upcoming issues. They start out with the “A” list of freelancers, or those who’s work is in almost every issue. They assign jobs to them as they see the individual artist’s style fits the piece, taking into account the artist’s availability, etc. Once all the “A’ listers are busy with something, they move on to the “B” list, or those who’s work is in the magazine consistently a few times a year. If there is any work left over at this point, they move on to the ‘best of the rest’, meaning those artists who have done some work in the past but aren’t really regulars. If anything is still left over, they will start considering new artists. As you might imagine, many months might go by without ever reaching that point.

There are two features in MAD that allow for new artists to get a ‘tryout’ without MAD having to commit a deadline or multiple pages to: “The Fundalini Pages” and “The Strip Club”. The “Fundalini Pages” is a three page collection of short gags, features and jokes that often need a spot illustration, and I’ve seen numerous new artists crop up there. The “Strip Club” is a multi-page feature containing comic strips that have edgy and quirky subjects and feels to them, and many new artists have appeared in that. Getting work in these sections is a little more likely and can lead to bigger assignments.

There is no secret address or password that will get your work in front of “the right person”. Not even home baked cookies will make any difference. Trust me when I say that anyone who sends work into MAD will get the proper attention paid to it, usually by Sam Viviano himself. Send artwork to “MAD Magazine, Sam Viviano- Art Director, 1700 Broadway, New York, NY 10019″. Writers can submit via e-mail at submissions@madmagazine.com. Do not e-mail any artwork, always mail it. Here is a link to their submission guidelines for more info. My advice is only send them strong, publishable type work, and leave the cool sketches you ripped out of your sketchbook at home. They aren’t interested in your ‘potential’, they just want to see work they could envision reproduced in the magazine.

Finally, be patient. Continue to send submissions in periodically. That way you have the best shot of having your work happen to be on Sam’s desk the day they are looking for someone to do a Fundalini spot. Never send the same thing twice, always make it new work they haven’t seen yet. Don’t get discouraged… after all, if I can get into MAD anybody can!