SWAMPED… and as I am leaving to an undisclosed location(s) on another of those USO trips on the 5th, the blogging might be a bit on the light side for a while…

• MAD- A 6 page movie parody!!! Woot!
• MAD Animated show- Back to work on some new episodes.
• Penthouse- Series of illustrations for an ongoing celebrity column
• Advertising job- series of caricature illustrations for a big corporation
• Workplace Poster- My usual monthly assignment

Speaking of workplace posters, here’s last month’s illustration. Click for a closer look:

The pencil sketch

Finished Artwork

Q: I Really love your work, especially the detail you put in. Your pictures are never taken in at a glance – there is something interesting going on right into the corners. So I have a question about your attention to detail. Obviously it’s important for caricatures that the details are as accurate a depiction as necessary to make the image recognizable, but how important is it to you that the details of the less essential elements in a scene are similarly as accurate? If you draw a car in the background do you like the car to be recognizably a Toyota or a Ford if all that is necessary is it be a car?

A: First off, thanks for the kind words about my work… I’m very glad you enjoy it. Now, on to your question…

I’ve learned an awful lot about illustration and cartooning working for MAD, but if someone was to ask me the single most important piece of advice I’ve ever gotten from anyone on cartooning/illustration, the answer would be this very simple but crucial bit of wisdom I got from MAD art director Sam Viviano:

“Your background elements should look as convincing as your foreground elements.”

I’m actually paraphrasing there, because Sam never says anything in one sentence, but that is essentially the point he was conveying. We were discussing my work and what I could do to improve it… this was before I had done my first MAD job and when I was furiously trying to “break in” to the magazine (which is not to be confused with my attempts to break in to the MAD offices… those efforts are a part of public police records). He pointed out to me that there was a noticeable difference between my caricatures of celebrities i.e. people who were supposed to “be somebody” in my illustrations and those who were just background or secondary characters. It was very apparent in my drawings who were representations of real people, and who were made up out of my head. His point was that this difference was noticeable to the point of distraction, and although I didn’t need to necessarily do full blown caricatures of real people for every face in a panel, I should make them look like they COULD be a real person… that they have enough presence and individuality to be a believable person, even if they are not the focus. I started using books of modeling agency head shots and stock photography books to get ideas for my background character’s features, hairstyles, look, etc. and also adding in people I know just for fun.

I combined that bit of advice with another that I consider the second most important thing anyone ever taught me about cartooning and illustration… this one came from long time MAD editor Nick Meglin, again prior to my doing work for MAD. I was having lunch with both he and Sam at the Society of Illustrators in New York, my having come to NYC to show them some of my latest work. Nick explained to me the importance of having a coherent look to the way you draw anything. His example was an artist who’s work can always be counted on to be an example of how to do it right… the great Jack Davis.

“Everybody knows Jack draws people and hands and feet and things like that very distinctively, and you can instantly recognize a Jack Davis hand or a Jack Davis foot… but you can also instantly recognize a Jack Davis chair, or boat, or cow, or baseball glove, or parking meter, or…”

Nick went on for about 15 minutes, kind of like Bubba in Forrest Gump about the different ways to cook shrimp. I think Sam eventually kicked him in the shin under the table and then he stopped.

Anyway, his point was that an illustrator draws the world as he/she sees it through their eyes, and it’s as important that your drawings of chairs or boats or parking meters look like they belong in the same world as the more important stuff you are drawing. So many caricature artists out there don’t understand this, having what I call “Live Caricature Disease”, or LCD. LCD is a condition in which the live caricaturist, through years of conditioning, believes the entire universe starts at the top of a person’s head and ends at their neck. The rest of the world needs to be described just as much as those faces do… and placing those faces in a world in which they look like they belong makes the caricatures all that more strong.

So, I do think it’s important that the details are paid attention to. Your example of drawing a car is a good one. No, I wouldn’t necessarily need to make sure the make and model of every car I draw be recognizable, but it should look like a convincing car. If I don’t know enough about the way a car (or any object I need to draw) looks I will get a picture and get a feel for it. I won’t necessarily draw the exact car in my reference photo, but I will use that picture to draw something that is not only unmistakably a car but one that contains convincing details like hood seams and air intake grills and such that it looks substantial and not like a cardboard cutout of a car put in for a prop. You don’t want to over-detail your secondary elements in an illustration to the point they distract from the focus of the image, but it can be equally distracting to have some odd looking thing that is SUPPOSED to be a car but which is so badly misproportioned or has some other flaws as to look out of place. Buildings are another good example. When I draw a building I want it to look not only like a real building but one that is appropriate for the environment I am drawing. It would not make sense to draw the facade of some New York brownstone if the scene of my illustration was in the French Quarter in New Orleans. There details are crucial, even though buildings are seldom part of the focus but usually background elements. Again, too much detail can be distracting but an overall convincing look enhances that believable world you are trying to describe with your drawings. I wouldn’t want to draw every brick in the facade or other minute details, but I’d want to get the essential elements like the molding, window casings, placement or elements and overall look accurate and enough details drawn or suggested to give it a convincing and substantial look.

Thanks to Jamie Littin 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!

Q: With all the work you do for the MAD parodies, have you ever contributed your own jokes/gags? Or have you ever done any written and illustrated pieces? Do you have any aspirations to write a comic strip or something like that?

A: I guess that depends on what you mean by “writing”. If you mean do I put words down in a script to contribute jokes and gags, then no… I have never done that for MAD.

However when asked this question I do feel confident in saying I “write” for MAD in a certain sense… meaning I do contribute a lot of humor to the features I draw for them in the form of visuals and background gags. I often mention my affinity for the late classic MAD artist Will Elder‘s “chicken fat” style, where he would cram every available space in a panel with a gag sign, visual, character or what have you to add multiple layers of humor to the feature. All those extra gags are really writing… just with pictures not words. Sometimes a MAD writer will specify some background gag they want me to include, and in that case they “wrote” that gag because they came up with the idea and it was in the script. When I write I just cut out the “script” part and put it directly into the art. You can see many examples in just about any parody I have ever done for MAD… some have more gags in the background than others but I am always looking to add something. Which are my contributions and which are the writers? Having the writer call for a background gag is unusual… they usually leave that for the artist… so if there is a gag or joke incoprprated into the art of a panel that does not have anything to do directly with the dialog in the word boxes, there is a 99.9% chance it’s the artist’s gag, unless it’s really funny in which case it’s probably the writer’s gag (heh). Any hand lettered signs or words are also usually the artist’s contribution.

As for “real” writing, I have not been credited specifically as a writer for MAD, but back in my Cracked Magazine days I wrote two of the parodies I illustrated. One was of the 1998 remake of “Godzilla” and the other was of the HBO show “The Sopranos”. The second I co-wrote with my friend and fellow caricaturist/cartoonist Jim Batts, who contributed several gags and had a lot of advice for me on the show’s characters as I had (at the time) not seen many episodes.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have dug up the decrepit old files of those two old Cracked features from early 1999, and here they are with all their artistic inadequacies intact. The first one of “Godzilla” I actually did to show newly minted MAD art director Sam Viviano in an attempt to get into MAD, but he was singularly unimpressed. Cracked, by contrast, not only liked it but immediately bought it and published it in the magazine (you can read about my Cracked adventures here). Click on any of these for a closer look:

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Incidentally the original title of that paordy was “God-Awful”, which makes more sense with the intro title. However I actually only did the first 4 pages to show Sam and when Cracked asked to buy it I had to finish it, so I came up with the Hillary Clinton joke later and changed the title to “God-Hilla”. After that one, Cracked asked me to do a parody of whatever I wanted (obviously their standards were pretty low at the time). “The Sopranos” was really hot and all over the news so I decided on that one and called Jim for some assistance, whereupon he sent me a box of recordings of the show and embellished the story with a number of gags. Again, click on any of these for a closer look:

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And that is the total of my writing credits in humor magazines. As Alfred might say… big deal!

Thanks to Gavin Aung Than from Australia 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!

Lots o’stuff cooking on the drawing board right now. Nothing “big” but a lot of smaller projects add up:

• Workplace Poster Illustration- My usual assignment for The Marlin Company
• Character Illustrations- Sort of a personal commission job doing individual illustrations of his dummies for ventriloquist and comedian Jeff Dunham
• Feature Article Illustration- Full pager for School Library Journal
• Couple of personal commissions- Stay tooned for details on an official personal commission format and availability…

I’m currently “between” assignments for the MAD animated show (wrapping production on a series of episodes prior to beginning on some new stuff) and MAD Magazine… although no doubt they’ll be a-callin’ soon.

Here’s a couple of assignments done recently that I have permission to share:

Click for a closer look…

Click for a closer look…

Small product Illustration of Dennis Kucinich for a deck of cards

Last week the Sunday Mailbag question was about how I seem to do a lot of political type work. Well, it IS an election year, and so I’ve been getting my fair share of projects relating to politics. I must say the conservatives are spending a lot more money than the liberals this time around… almost all my projects recently have been for the right side of the aisle. Here is a the progression of one from last month. This more painted style caricature of Sen. Harry Reid is being used for some kind of campaign promotion:

This is one of a few rough sketches that the client approved to go forward. I wasn’t trying too hard with the likeness in any of them… the point was trying to get the “scene” down. Sorry seem to have trashed the other sketches.

Here’s the tighter sketch for final approval. Click for a closer look,,,

Click for a closer look…

The image above I saved and sent out to the client because they asked for a rare look at the work in progress. I hate doing that and usually discourage it, because invariably the client comes back with a “please make sure the final is nice and clean without pencil lines and with a tighter painting”. Then I have to bite my tongue and say “Never fear, this is just a partially finished image and the final will reflect my usual finished work quality” when instead I am thinking “No shit, Sherlock. YOU are the one who asked for a look at an unfinished piece. Sheesh.”

Here’s the finished artwork. Click for a closer look…

Q: So I really want to pursue my passion for caricature and cartooning. I want to give it a go but Sunday is my only day off so live gigs are hard to come by. I look on E Lance and Solo Gig but seems like a lot of professionals are on there. So my questions are, should I capture what is going on in local news and submit my work to the A.D. Of the local papers, without contacting them first? Undercut everyone on E Lance? And last, I need to create a portfolio and needed to know what to include. Should it be online, on disc or hard copy?

A: I’m not very familiar specifically with E Lance and Solo Gig, but in general online resources for finding freelance work and workers like that are still fledgling and are not very productive. Most of the stories I’ve heard from those who have gotten some work from these sources is that the clients they are put in touch with are looking for work done very cheap or for nothing. Those who go to these sites looking for freelance work are often new to hiring freelancers or, more often, one of those “I’ve got a million dollar idea and only need an artist/writer/programmer to do it” types that want to pay by splitting the phantom profits with the freelancer or, worse yet, working for “exposure”. Maybe these types of resources will eventually become a great resource for the working professional, but right now they aren’t quite there.

That said, for someone trying to break into the business it might be a good place to start. You can always say “no” to someone looking for your skills to do a job if you don’t feel the time and effort is worth the rewards. However I would not pay a single dime for any of these services… you’ll get better results by doing a little leg work on your own.

As far as doing live gigs, by which I assume you mean live caricature, being only available Sundays is a major problem. Do you work evenings every day?? Because most events and parties that look for caricatures as entertainment happen in the evenings. It would be inexpensive to print a single page flyer and send it out to all the members of your local Chamber of Commerce advertising your services for company parties and events.

You mentioned sending your work “cold” to the art directors of local papers… by that I assume you mean editorial cartoons based on local politics and news. Certainly you should do that if you have the inclination… editorial cartoons targeting local topics are something newspapers SHOULD be desperate to get their hands on, but their budgets for that kind of thing are pretty small. Don’t expect to get paid a lot if your cartoons are picked up by a single paper (it’s getting syndicated that makes you the money) but appearing in your local paper, even the suburban type small community papers, can get your name out there and net you work in other areas locally. In fact, suburban newspapers are a relatively untapped source of publication for an ambitious cartoonist with local ties. Most suburban papers are printed by a single company that does a dozen or more different local editions. Doing cartoons that are about local city topics can get you in several of them at a pop… grab a copy of your local small paper and look up the publisher.

Finally, I’d concentrate on a digital, online portfolio. The days of schlepping around a leather bound portfolio are long over. It’s easy, cheap and quick to put together a simple portfolio online where you can change the content 24/7 within seconds at your leisure. Your business card with the URL of your online portfolio becomes your portfolio itself, and anyone can see your work at any time.

Check out these past posts for more info on portfolios and breaking into the freelance cartooning/illustration business:

Getting started doing freelance illustration

Modern Portfolios

Marketing yourself as a freelancer

Thanks to Billy Melago 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!

For the freelance illustrator there are two tasks that are absolutely essential for being successful:

1. Finding new clients
2. Keeping the clients once you’ve found them

The first one is all about marketing yourself, doing appealing work and targeting the right clients with your promotional efforts, and is universally considered the hardest part of being a freelancer: Finding the work.

The second one is at least as important as the first, however. Once you find a client, doing ongoing work for them is one of the cornerstones of building a successful (and stable) freelance business. One cannot rely on a constant influx of new clients providing enough work to stay busy. You need a core group of clients who give you steady or semi-steady work that you can count on to be your “rock” while you continue to pursue new work. When you find a client who gives you constant work… they are worth their weight in gold and you should do everything you can to keep that relationship strong and healthy.

I’m fortunate to have a few of those types. MAD is of course one, but I also do a fair amount of work every year for Scholastic and National Geographic World publications. Penthouse is proving to be a client that gives me a handful of jobs a year, and I have been doing a lot of work for Ray Griggs and his various movie and TV projects.

I was asked in a comment last week to explain about these “workplace posters” I am always posting the artwork for on The MAD Blog. Those jobs all come from one client, and this client is one of those long term, constant work types that are so important to a freelancer’s success. The client is The Marlin Company, and they produce communication materials for industries and employers all around the U.S. They make both print and electronic display units that a company would put up in their employee areas and provide a subscription based service that sends monthly content for those displays. The content consists of posters, placards and electronic animations that promote teamwork, safety, stress management and other important employer messages to the subscriber’s work force. The content is tailored to the specific display unit and some target certain industries like health care or manufacturing, but most are universal messages that any business wants their employees to understand. The poster art  I do is part of their “humor” line and usually depicts some zany scene or situation that enforces the message that goes along with it. The final printed poster is 17″ x 21″ with my image being 17″ x 17″ and text at the bottom. I basically do one a month for them, and have been doing so for about 8 years or so… although to be honest I can’t recall exactly when I did my first one. It was a physical painting and not digital, so that was a while ago. I estimate I’ve done over 100 poster images for them.

So how do you retain these kinds of clients? The first step is of course to do a great job on the artwork and on meeting any deadlines they have. Communication as always is key, so staying in touch and keeping them informed of your progress is important… but of course that is something you do for all clients and all jobs. You just don’t know when that first call from a new client might evolve into steady, on going work, so you need to do every job like it will be the first of many. It also is important to make the client feel like you appreciate their business, so the occasional thank you note or holiday card is a great way to convey this message.

It will become apparent quickly when a client falls into that “steady source of work” category, and that’s when you need to go the extra mile for them. When I have a client like that, I will make sure they are taken care of ahead of other work if that becomes necessary. I won’t blow a deadline for another client, but I will pull an all-nighter if my “gold” client calls with an emergency piece or something with a shorter deadline without batting an eye. I certainly will never turn down a job from a client like that no matter what the cost in effort may be.

The reason these kinds of clients are so hard to find and retain is that is is rare for anything to continue in the long term in the publishing world. Some things are out of your control, and no matter how good of a job you do changes will take place that will change everything. This often involves an art director losing their job or moving on, and a new art director taking over who has different ideas and tastes. I used to do a lot of work for a company called Business and Legal Reports, but when the art director I worked with left I never got another call from them. I know a lot of illustrators who would do a steady gig like a spot illustration for a column for some magazine for years and then lose that work when a new art director takes over the publication. You can’t get worked up over that kind of thing… it’s life and it will happen. All you can do is a great job and let the chips fall where they may… it’s always been my philosophy that when you work hard and put great effort and heart into what you do, good things will happen eventually. The world of business has a lot of cut throat to it, but the good will outweigh the bad if you just don’t give up and keep giving it your all.

Here are a bunch of my favorite Marlin Co. posters I’ve done over the years:

I do a few illustrations a year for Penthouse, which I have no qualms about doing so long as I am not asked to do anything pornographic. This is something they understand and only give me a call when they need a humorous illustration for an article that isn’t too “blue”. They are really great to work with.

The September issue has a full page illustration I did for a humorous article about why guys have “sex on the brain” i.e. it’s all some guys think about. Initially the art director wanted me to do an image of a guy with his brain coming out of his skull, and all the bumps on the surface forming intertwining bodies and female forms. That was a little borderline for me. While I followed through on that in a sketch, I also suggested something a little more classic looking… the same open skull but with tiny female figures popping out all over. Here are the sketches:

Sketch based on original idea

A different approach…

The art director liked the look of my second sketch. I thought the cartoony treatment of the naked female figures sans nipples or other realistic anatomical details gave them a “Barbie” doll look that was tasteful in this context. Here is the final art:

Click for a closer look…

I’m sort of taking this week off from the “Sketch o’the Week” after spending quite a bit more time than usual on that series of ink wash sketches over the last two plus months. This week’s sketch is actually the rough sketch for a small project. It’s a trading card that is part of a series being used in an ad campaign for a company. Once the campaign is launched I’ll post the finished art here, and tell you about the project and the rarefied company I am keeping in doing one of these cards… some of the artists they have doing art for this series are legends.

I’ve been advertising on and off in Serbin Communication’s Directory of Illustration for about 15 years now, and while the results aren’t exactly staggering I usually get enough new jobs from my ad to pay for it. The real value of it comes from not picking up new jobs per se but new clients from whom I get ongoing work. I still believe the best way to market yourself as a freelancer is a combination of an internet presence, direct mailing and ads like this that get distributed to tens of thousands of buyers of illustration.

The toughest part for me is always putting the page together and finding work that shows a range of subject matter and techniques. This one runs the gamut from my line and color style (Brett Farve illo originally for the Minneapolis Star Tribune) to my new colored line style (guys fighting and guy eating hot wings for breakfast, both for Penthouse) my digital painting style (the Gates vs. Crowley/ Obama referee image done for MAD), a straight up cartoon (Piranha done for the Minnesota Twins) and just for fun I tossed in several of my LOST ink-wash caricatures… I admit did a little digital touching up on some of them as the scans were a bit washed out and some of the detail was being lost (pun intended).

We’ll see how effective the ad is this year.