Finally, a little good news on the book’s production and delivery schedule.

My printer was able to get our print run squeezed in earlier than expected, and the book is on the press as I speak . . . uh . . . type. Barring any printing run disasters the bound books should ship out on Sept. 12th from Korea, and would arrive here in Minnesota on or around October 5th. I’m knocking on wood right now, as there are still many potential issues that could slow that process down—a messed up print run, tsunamis and such. Still, this is good news and once again thanks for the patience of those who have pre-ordered the book.

I will say this—I am very happy with how the book turned out. I have only seen the proofs, and not an actual bound press copy, but as far as the content goes is went off better than I had hoped. If you know me, I’m pretty hard on myself and my work, so if I say I really liked something I did, then I must have really done it right. I think those who have ordered the book will be happy with their purchase.

Q: When you teach new artists your techniques for drawing caricatures in a theme park, what are some common problems you see?

A: Everybody is different, of course, but there are some issues that in the 20 plus years I have been training theme park artists I have noticed seem to be typical of many beginning live caricaturists.

Fear of line- This is very typical and to be expected. Live caricature is an exercise in fearlessness and audacity, where you make bold, confident lines on the paper like you have been doing it for years. New artists almost always lack this fearlessness and confidence, and their lines are timid, sketchy, and lack the spontaneity and strength that is so important to live caricature. Fortunately this is a cosmetic issue, and easily overcome once the artist decides to trust their lines and commit to them. At first this kind of going-for-broke linework results in a number of bad, disjointed drawings, but very quickly the artist’s lines start clicking and then the difference in the results is remarkable.

Small Cranial Mass Syndrome- Many beginning artists seem to struggle with giving their subjects too small of a top of a head (the cranial mass/hair area). I am not sure why, but I have seen it enough to know it is definitely a common issue. My theory is that the artists are so concerned with the features of the lower face (eyes, nose, mouth) that they unconsciously make this area more prevalent and therefore bigger, while making the top of the head smaller. I correct this by explaining how, in traditional portraiture, the head mass is equal above and below the horizontal center of the head, which is the line of the eyes. Giving someone a small cranial mass and a big lower face/jaw is a great head shape exaggeration . . . if the subject’s face is deserving of it. It might not be, however, and applying an exaggeration arbitrarily to any face is distortion, not exaggeration. I tell them they they should stick to the equal mass rule unless they want to consciously change it for exaggeration purposes. I remind them that they will draw as many people who need to be exaggerated with a big top of a head and a small lower face, than they will the other way around.

Asymmetry- This is a byproduct of the “no sketching” method of quick-draw caricature and the sequencing technique we use, but many artists struggle with their faces being a little lopsided or otherwise asymmetrical. This is just a matter of being conscious of the issue and making sure when you start to draw each feature you are aware of its relative position to the other features and the rest of the face, so you don’t draw one eye too low of make one side of the face father from the center line than the other. No face is truly symmetrical, but most people perceive them as such, and to me badly off is very noticeable.

Those are just a few of the more common problems. Everyone has their own, unique hang-ups and strengths.

Thanks to Ryan Roe for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!

Click for a closer look…

This week’s book sneak peek is the opening spread of Chapter Five: “Caricaturing the Rest of the Head”. This chapter contains 25 pages and over 70 illustrations. It deals with drawing and caricaturing the other features of the face past the eyes, nose, and mouth that were covered in the previous chapter. Split into two parts, “The Lower Face” discusses the jaw, chin, cheekbones and ears, while “The Upper Head” covers eyebrows, forehead, hair (the much asked about subject), and the general mass of the top half of the head.

Book delivery update- Some bad news… the books will now not arrive until the second week of October.

The delay due to color matching issues was finally rectified earlier this week, and the book is approved for printing after a delay of about 9 days. Unfortunately, that caused us to miss our scheduled print window for the printing company, and they are trying to squeeze us in earlier but it might be another two weeks before we actually go to press. To top it off, the printer’s estimates of time for shipping have mysteriously changed since the job was bid, adding over 10 days to the shipping time estimate. Altogether that has put us about a month back from the original ETA of mid-September. That puts the bound books on my doorstep at sometime in mid October.

I have sent this info out in an email to all those who have placed a pre-order. Thanks very much to all those who replied to say “no problem” and expressed support for the book. That means a lot. Thank you.

I apologize to everyone who was expecting a September ship date, but these issues are out of my control. The delay will only be about 2 weeks from the end of September, so I am asking for just a little more patience. On the plus side, the corrected proof looks great, and the printed book should look terrific.

If anyone who placed a pre-order does not want to wait any longer for their copy, please e-mail me at once with your name and PayPal order number, and I will immediately issue you a full refund.

Thanks again to everyone who placed a pre-order, and for your patient wait.

See other chapter sneak peeks here.

The gang at MAD just released a new book, INSANELY AWESOME MAD, that is geared toward the viewership of the animated MAD show on the Cartoon Network. There is an interesting selection of work inside, and it makes you get a better idea of what kind of viewers they are getting, or are aiming at appealing to, with the CN show. There are no movie or TV show parodies. You will find several examples of Sergio‘s “A MAD Look at…”, a bunch of Spy Vs. Spys (all classic Antonio Prohias ones, but nicely colored), several Don Martin classics (also colored) as well as many other assorted features from a variety of UGOI (that’s Usual Gang of Idiots for those of you who do not speak MAD). There is also a selection of work from “The Strip Club”, which here has been renamed the bit more kid-friendly “The Comic Club”. Definitely kid-safe, skewed very much in the same vein as MAD KIDS used to be.

Published by their own imprint, MAD Books, it’s 128 pages, in full color with a softcover. The paper stock used is a nice, glossy stock and the art and colors really pop on it. I hope MAD does more books in this format, as it really makes the artwork look great. It’s not any funnier, but it looks great. It’s only $12.99 (cheap), but you can get it at Amazon for only $9.77 (even cheaper).

I have one piece in this book” “MAD‘s Proposed Rule Changes for the Upcoming NASCAR Season”, originally published in MAD #427, Mar 2003, and written by Desmond Devlin. See sample of part of that piece below.

Looks like a good collection of MADness for the younger set.

Click for a closer look…