Tom's Mad Blog
June 9th, 2020 | Posted in Daily Coronacature
I needed to get this one done early today. Here’s my take on Edward Norton… at least a beat up one from the movie “Fight Club”. Edward has a lot of forehead, and a small, narrow mouth with a small, rounded chin. He also does not have a very distinct jawline. The corners of his mouth extend down to connect with his chin, and he has a kind of “chipmunk cheek” look with almost a double chin. READ MORE
June 8th, 2020 | Posted in General
I’ve finally rescheduled my caricature illustration workshop for August 14-16, 2020 in nearby Eagan, MN. Due to cancellations by students I now have four spots available in this previously sold out workshop. This is a NEW kind of workshop… Caricature Illustration! My other workshops focus on teaching the art of caricature and only sample some of my illustration techniques. This workshop will be focused on the process of creating a caricature-based illustration from concept/roughs all the way to color final art. Tom provides instruction on each phase, including: Concept, “narrative”, composition and rough sketches Final pencils and prep for inking Traditional inking with dip pen and… READ MORE
June 8th, 2020 | Posted in Daily Coronacature
Willem Dafoe has a lot of features to play with in a caricature. He has a small but very sharp nose, a large and wide chin, high and bony cheekbones, a pronounced brow, heavy upper eyelids, and so many creases and crannies on his face he could pass as a topographical map. I think he has very interesting teeth, so I chose to try drawing him with a toothy grin. He doesn’t usually smile with his teeth in still photographs, but when he acts his teeth are very prominent. READ MORE
June 7th, 2020 | Posted in Daily Coronacature
Here’s my sketch of today’s subject, Forest Whitaker! Forest has some pretty obvious features to exaggerate… the lazy eye and the huge ears jump right out at you. However it’s expression that really drives a good caricature. Finding and exaggerating a person’s “presence”, what makes them them is just as important as giving someone really big ears. I find how the corners of Forest’s mouth curve downward and in , and how the nasolabial furrows (lines from the nose down to the corners of the mouth, go out wide and then also curve around and under the mouth corners fascinating. Those elements and how the… READ MORE
June 6th, 2020 | Posted in News
MAD #14 is starting to appear in subscriber’s mailboxes, and it’s a special “Al Jaffee” issue celebrating his retirement at the tender age of 99. The issue is full of reprints of some of Al’s work, “tribute” pieces of some of Al’s classic features like “Snappy Answers…”, “MAD Solutions to…” done by current Usual Idiots, and a new fold-in by Al that he did years ago to run as his last when he retired. I did the above spot for the last page of the issue. I also did the art on a Desmond Devlin penned tribute piece. Michael Cavna‘s “Comic Riffs” feature in the… READ MORE
June 6th, 2020 | Posted in Daily Coronacature
Only have time for a quick one today… here’s my Halle Berry. Halle has some very intense eyebrows, a small nose, and when she smiles her cheeks stretch out so the bottoms are almost on the same horizontal as her nose. Finally she has a high and “tall” forehead, which looks even higher and taller with this hairdo. READ MORE
June 5th, 2020 | Posted in Daily Coronacature
Here’s my take on the late, great Marty Feldman. When I posted the subject this morning, I noted that Marty was an “easy one”. That’s not entirely true. People who have very obvious features to exaggerate are sometimes just as elusive to capture as someone without an obvious “hook” because there’s a tendency to try and exaggerate it all, when you really want to concentrate on what’s most important. It’s a little like skeet shooting. When one target takes off you know to zero in on that one and shoot it cleanly. When 20 targets take off at the same time, if you try to… READ MORE
June 4th, 2020 | Posted in General
I was remiss in not posting this yesterday, which marked the 28th anniversary of the passing of MAD founder and publisher William M. Gaines. I never met Bill. I got my first print assignment from MAD exactly 20 years ago this month. That was eight years after Bill’s passing. MAD has evolved a lot since Bill died, but back in those days the magazine was still very much the “Gaines” MAD, being run by Nick Meglin and John Ficarra, with editors Joe Raiola and Charlie Kadau… even Lenny “The Beard” Brenner was still about doing art production. Then newly minted art director Sam Viviano had… READ MORE
