Tom's Mad Blog
February 1st, 2019 | Posted in Stuff from my Studio
People in the military all know what a challenge coin is, but few civilians do. A challenge, or unit, coin is a medallion that represents affiliation, support or patronage to the organization minted on the coin. Almost all military units have their own coins, carried by the members of the units, and commanders often have special coins to give out when someone does something special for the unit. According to legend, the challenge coin originated during World War I, when American volunteers from all walks of life filled newly formed flying squadrons. Some of these volunteers were wealthy students from such schools as Yale or… READ MORE
January 31st, 2019 | Posted in General
This was done as a cover for Reason magazine back in late 2010. I can’t remember the message behind the image, but this is then governor-elect of California Jerry Brown. He was about to take office for the second time in 2011. Below are some of the rough layouts I sent the art directors early in the process: READ MORE
January 30th, 2019 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
No time for a Sketch o’the Week” today, but I thought I’d try and clear some space in my flat files by not just sharing these but offering them up for sale… the complete story pencil roughs (seven pages!) from MAD‘s parody of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” aka “Harry Plodder and the Torture of the Fanbase” from MAD #480, Aug 2007, written by Desmond Devlin! Splash page above, the other five pages below. Available in the Studio Store. READ MORE
January 29th, 2019 | Posted in News
I had an sudden opportunity to add a workshop for early May here in Minnesota, so this just announced: a workshop May 3rd-5th in nearby Eagan, MN! I usually like to give people 6 months notice before a workshop, but this weekend suddenly opened up for me and I won’t be able to plan a workshop here in Minnesota at any other time in 2019, so this was my chance… just a little over three months until this workshop!! These Minnesota workshops are unique in that the Friday part of the class takes place here in my home and studio. We have a little welcome… READ MORE
January 28th, 2019 | Posted in Monday MADness
I few weeks ago I started occasionally sharing favorite panels from the art I did for each of my 2018 parodies in the “new” MAD Magazine. I figure this would make a good ongoing series, especially for my usual “Monday MADness” posts. I might as well start from the very beginning, so here is one of my favorite panels from my very first ‘continuity’ (the MAD staff term for a movie or TV parody), the parody of “Malcolm in the Middle” from MAD #403, March 2001, written by Desmond Devlin So, why this panel? Honestly this was a choosing of lesser evils. I did this… READ MORE
January 27th, 2019 | Posted in General
Q: Do you have trouble capturing the likeness of some subjects and if so how do you fix it? A: How to capture a likeness is too big a question to answer here, but I do have some things that I do if I am struggling with a getting a good likeness for a particular subject: Get more photo references– This is hands down the most helpful thing you can do if a likeness is eluding you. Trying to base a caricature on a single image means you are relying solely on the information that picture gives you. Lighting, angles, odd expressions, lens distortion and… READ MORE
January 25th, 2019 | Posted in General
In the last week or so I’ve had three pals write and tell me they are having problems delivering digital artwork to clients and having said clients complain that the images are “too small” or “too low a resolution”. They are confused about the differences between resolution and physical size of a piece of art, and how those are related and how they are different for print and for web/computer screen display. I thought about doing a mailbag post on this subject, but I think a full blown post/article is in order: Understanding Physical Dimensions, Pixel Dimensions and DPI When you are working with a… READ MORE
January 24th, 2019 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s one last warmup sketch from my workshop last weekend… Liam Neeson. READ MORE
