Tom's Mad Blog
March 8th, 2012 | Posted in Freelancing
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRuzVKSX-1Q[/youtube] Here’s another animated commercial for director Ray Griggs and Swiss America I did some design work on. The Bernanke, Reagan and Obama characters I had designed for previous videos, and I did a series of “ghost” versions of some other famous (and dead) politicians that appear very briefly in the last few seconds. These were not character designs that were going to be 3D animated but single illustrations meant to approximate the look of the 3D animations for the quick look onscreen. I don’t think we quite pulled that off . . . too much contrast and too much of a linear, cartoon look… READ MORE
March 7th, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A warm up sketch of recent Oscar winner Christopher Plummer. READ MORE
March 6th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
DC Entertainment launched a completely redesigned web presence today, with all new looks for the DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD websites: New Online Destinations for DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD Offer Multimedia Experiences with Exclusive Content, Integrated Community Features and Character Franchise Pages BURBANK, CA, March 6, 2012 – DC Entertainment, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company and home to iconic brands DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD, launched today a portfolio of comprehensive and interactive new websites. The DCComics.com site, currently in beta status, offers fans exclusive new content, integrated community and social media features, and in-depth character franchise pages built around iconic characters including Superman,… READ MORE
March 6th, 2012 | Posted in News
Hard to believe, but my book The Mad Art of Caricature!- A Serious Guide to Drawing Funny Faces already needs to do a second printing. This is not going to be a second edition . . . there won’t be any new material added. It is merely a second run of the original book. That said, I do have an opportunity here to correct a few of the stray typos and errors that snuck past my copy editors and myself the first time around. Believe me, the fact that these errors are so few and far between is a testament to the hard work and… READ MORE
March 5th, 2012 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
A few things going and upcoming right now: MAD Parody– Movie for issue #515. Deadline rushing headlong at me and it’s angry. Graphic Novel Cover– Not sure how to classify this, but it’s a fun job that the publisher wants me to do just the inked art for, and a colorist will be painting. This will be the first time since my comic book days another artist has colored my work. Should be interesting. Company Logo Design– I usually refuse to do logo work because I hate working with type, and it’s not really my forte anyway, but this one was a rare instance that… READ MORE
March 4th, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What was your very first paid professional freelance job? A: That depends on your definition of “professional freelance job”. If by that you mean the first time money was ever given to me in exchange for my artwork, that would have been in 10th grade in La Crescent, MN, when a fellow classmate named Lori paid me to paint my concept of a Van Halen album cover… not a copy of one of their album covers, but my idea of a new cover. I did their classic VH logo looking like it was rising out of a glowing, smoking crater. I did it using… READ MORE
March 2nd, 2012 | Posted in General
This past weekend I traveled to Des Moines, IA, to meet up with my fellow members of the National Cartoonist Society North Central Chapter to judge out division for the annual NCS awards (we did Greeting Cards this year). While there we got to hang out in freelance cartoonist/illustrator Buck Jones and his wife Kim‘s house for a little welcome party. Besides the great food, drink and company, the best part was getting to pour over Buck’s great collection of original artwork by dozens of well known cartoonists. You can check out some pics on the NCC blog. Knowing I had quite a few originals… READ MORE
March 1st, 2012 | Posted in News
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViOmxr-TMzk[/youtube] I have a number of caricature and comic artist friends who swear that the iPad is a very functional tool for sketching, drawing and painting. I’ve seen some impressive results by several digital artists, but in my personal experience the iPad lacks two important features to make it a truly useful art tool: a stylus that uses a reasonably-precise point (as opposed to a marshmallow tip) and pressure sensitivity. Yes, you can apparently work around the lack of these features and create some good art, but you can work around the limitations of using a broken stick and dirt also… by why would you… READ MORE
