Tom's Mad Blog
September 27th, 2013 | Posted in News
“D’Oh!” Labels added by me (digitally) As The Lovely Anna and I travel through Italy, I have noticed an odd phenomenon that I have been wondering about… almost every walk up shop that sells alcohol carries “Duff” Beer, the fictional beer of choice of Homer Simpson from the long-running animated TV series ‘The Simpsons”. That got me wondering… do Europeans think that Americans actually LIKE Duff Beer, which as far as I knew in real life was nothing more than a gag label beer in the U.S.? Or, is ‘The Simpsons” popular enough in Europe marketing-wise that Europeans will actually buy this beer despite it… READ MORE
September 26th, 2013 | Posted in General
I had much better luck in Florence than Venice finding caricaturists. We found a square with almost all portrait and caricaturists right in front of the Uffizi Gallery, and several more around the Piazza del Duomo. It takes a special kind of guts (or stupid) to sell your artwork only feet away from some of the greatest works of art ever created, but street caricaturists are seldom accused of being timid. That Madonna is a Kr?¬?ger I’ve seen that Roberto Benigni somewhere… The Connery I believe is a Vizcarra… The same Benigni and the same Jackson… not sure where that one is from either. That… READ MORE
September 25th, 2013 | Posted in General
I thought, just for fun, I’d look for street caricaturists while on my trip through Italy and report back on a couple of things, including: If they have any stolen caricature samples up on their display (mine or anyone else’s I recognize) If they are any good I’d include some pictures and get my caricature drawn in each city we visit, those being Venice, Florence and Rome. Here’s my report on Venice’s caricature artist community: Venice Caricature Grade: F Ordinarily I’d never give a live caricaturist less than a “D”, and I’d only give them that low a grade if they had nothing but ripped… READ MORE
September 25th, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is a digital study I did as an element for a job that I’ll share sometime soon (whenever it’s been released). A quick sketch of artist Salvador Dali. READ MORE
September 23rd, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
Occasionally MAD asks me to step outside the box and do something that is very different from my usual style of art. In honor of Apple’s release of iOS 7 last week, here is some art from one of those assignments. This appeared in MAD #463, March 2006 and was written by Russ Cooper (clicky on some to embiggen…): Above are the pencil sketches. I did them separately and then scanned and placed them in the color layout, and erased out the white so the editors would get a feel for the look. Here are the finals: READ MORE
September 22nd, 2013 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I have really enjoyed following your blog for sometime now and waited with bated breath for your book to come out. It is nothing short of a masterpiece!¬¨‚Ć Your book is chock full of great drawings and instruction. I know that there is no substitute for Practice. My question is… What methods would you recommend for practicing? Would you find a caricature you admire and practice it over and over? Would you practice individual features over and over? What tips could you give on the best way to get the most out of one’s practice time? A: Great question. Thanks for the kind words… READ MORE
September 21st, 2013 | Posted in General
The Lovely Anna and I are off today on our 25th anniversary dream trip. I have a few posts scheduled to go for the next week or so, and I might check in from Italia if I get the chance. Otherwise, Ci vediamo a ottobre! READ MORE
September 20th, 2013 | Posted in News
The Studio Store on my website has been an afterthought for a long time now, but no longer! I just had it redone and it is now a complete merchant solution, allowing anyone to order any of my junk, pay via PayPal or a credit card (through PayPal), choose various shipping options, etc. It took a long time to program all the various international shipping options for each item in, but things seem to be working well. One big benefit as far as shipping goes is the site will work with USPS’s API and calculate actual shipping costs when services are available for that particular… READ MORE
