Tom's Mad Blog
February 1st, 2013 | Posted in General
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWXYoD7wfOs[/youtube] Recently I reposted something I’d wrote about how working on “spec” is a really bad thing, both for you and for other artists trying to make a living. My buddy Stephen Silver, a very well known and successful animation artist and illustrator, posted this highly energetic and right-on-target rant about why working for free, for “exposure”, or otherwise for anything except a living wage, is bad for the profession. He’s passionate about it, for good reason. READ MORE
January 31st, 2013 | Posted in MAD Magazine
MTV Geek got an exclusive first look at the cover of MAD #520, announcing the return of MAD’s “The 50 Worst Things About…” feature. This time MAD goes after cartoons. The cover art was done by first time MAD cover artist Chris Houghton, a terrific cartoonist and a great success story. At age 20 Chris was the winner of the National Cartoonist Society Foundation’s Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship in 2009. He has since published is own comic book series “Reed Gunther”, worked as a freelance illustrator doing lots of stuff including a few pieces for the interior of MAD, does comic book work for “The… READ MORE
January 30th, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s another stab at this video sketch thing, this time of Homeland‘s Morena Baccarin, actual drawing time 20 minutes. This time I did a lot more gray scale painting, obviously. Maybe next time I’ll do some color: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjJaH7PP4PM[/youtube] A few observations about Morena- she’s obviously a very beautiful woman, but she has plenty of things to exaggerate. Her eyes are very arresting, but they are slightly mismatched… one is flatter shaped than the other, and her pupil/iris is more covered up on that side. She has a wide face with very prominent cheekbones, and a wide nose bridge but a sharp and narrow end… READ MORE
January 29th, 2013 | Posted in General
Only 10 days to go in the Kickstarter campaign to fund this sure-to-be-great documentary about MAD Magazine and it’s 60 plus years of holding a funhouse mirror to the world in general, and influencing generations of humorists in the process. They are woefully short of the $50,000 goal. They need a flurry of activity and a few big sponsors to step up, but they could also use a lot of little sponsors as well. $25 will get you a DVD of the final documentary (updated from the download they previously offered at that level). If enough people do that, they’ll meet their goal. So many… READ MORE
January 28th, 2013 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
When Apple’s iPad started the tablet computing craze, one of the Holy Grails of these light and extremely portable devices was using it as a digital drawing board ala the Wacom Cintiq. In the case of the early tablets, the problems in the way were a lack of pressure sensitivity, and that the touch screens were designed to work with fingertips, not a precise stylus. The drawing instrument “solutions” were these terrible styluses with a big, marshmallow-like pillow at the end that was not ideal for fine drawing or linework, and of course no pressure sensitivity at all. (NOTE: before I go on, please spare… READ MORE
January 27th, 2013 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You have mentioned several times that before you went freelance, you started your own caricature stands in theme parks, but I don’t think you’ve ever taken us down the road of how that came about, and what you had to do to make it happen (or if you have, I haven’t come across it yet). What’s the story? A: I have told parts of it here and there, but never the whole tale. I’ll try and keep it brief, as it’s a long story in detail. Back when I was a student at the University of MN, I was skipping a particularly pretentious art… READ MORE
January 25th, 2013 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Clicky to Embiggen… Right now I have basically nothing on the drawing board, except the dreaded “almost ready” sort of projects: MAD Job for #521– Promised to be “meaty”… might mean I am drawing cows. Still in the works in editorial. DC Comics job– Previously mentioned forthcoming assignment… WB Product illustration– One down on this two illustration job, second one still in development so in temporary limbo Workplace poster illustration– my usual monthly assignment, direction not yet delivered That’s it for certain jobs bound to be on the way shortly, although there are a few “maybe” jobs in the works as well. I don’t… READ MORE
January 24th, 2013 | Posted in Freelancing
I got a big box in the mail the other day, containing The Absolute Ultimate Gutters Omnibus Volume 3 in all its hardcover and glossy, oversized page glory. So-so cover art . . . but otherwise a handsome book. If you are not familiar with The Gutters, and you are a fan of comic books at all, shame on you. It is a series of single page comics that parody, criticize, and sometimes utterly savage, the comic book industry, its culture and subject matter. It’s sometimes funny, sometimes vicious, but always on target. Written by Ryan Sohmer, the art is done by guest artists making… READ MORE
