Tom's Mad Blog
September 7th, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Kind of busy again this week so I am going to post another of the more finished sketches I did for my “Secret Agent Man” print. This one is of the most recent actor to play James Bond in the movies, Daniel Craig. In the print, I decided to lose the dripping blood and the pain “stars” because I thought that was a little too much. I’ve been asked why I made Craig look so beat up. I think the answer should be obvious. While all the movie Bonds occasionally took a beating, Craig is one of the few who actually ended up looking like… READ MORE
September 6th, 2011 | Posted in Freelancing
There is a short piece in this month’s issue of SI Kids featuring a few spot illustrations I did. The article is about different types of coaches, and drew a cartoon character version of each “type” showing some of their pro and con attributes. We loosely based some of them on real coaches, but not in their facial features. Things like clothing, accessories and demeanor might remind you of certain real coaches in pro or college sports. None of them are even remotely caricatures of real people, though.¬¨‚Ć Here are the final results . . . I think the details of the type is pretty… READ MORE
September 5th, 2011 | Posted in General
Finally, a little good news on the book’s production and delivery schedule. My printer was able to get our print run squeezed in earlier than expected, and the book is on the press as I speak . . . uh . . . type. Barring any printing run disasters the bound books should ship out on Sept. 12th from Korea, and would arrive here in Minnesota on or around October 5th. I’m knocking on wood right now, as there are still many potential issues that could slow that process down…a messed up print run, tsunamis and such. Still, this is good news and once again… READ MORE
September 4th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When you teach new artists your techniques for drawing caricatures in a theme park, what are some common problems you see? A: Everybody is different, of course, but there are some issues that in the 20 plus years I have been training theme park artists I have noticed seem to be typical of many beginning live caricaturists. Fear of line- This is very typical and to be expected. Live caricature is an exercise in fearlessness and audacity, where you make bold, confident lines on the paper like you have been doing it for years. New artists almost always lack this fearlessness and confidence, and… READ MORE
September 2nd, 2011 | Posted in News
Click for a closer look… This week’s book sneak peek is the opening spread of Chapter Five: “Caricaturing the Rest of the Head”. This chapter contains 25 pages and over 70 illustrations. It deals with drawing and caricaturing the other features of the face past the eyes, nose, and mouth that were covered in the previous chapter. Split into two parts, “The Lower Face” discusses the jaw, chin, cheekbones and ears, while “The Upper Head” covers eyebrows, forehead, hair (the much asked about subject), and the general mass of the top half of the head. Book delivery update– Some bad news… the books will now… READ MORE
September 1st, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The gang at MAD just released a new book, INSANELY AWESOME MAD, that is geared toward the viewership of the animated MAD show on the Cartoon Network. There is an interesting selection of work inside, and it makes you get a better idea of what kind of viewers they are getting, or are aiming at appealing to, with the CN show. There are no movie or TV show parodies. You will find several examples of Sergio‘s “A MAD Look at…”, a bunch of Spy Vs. Spys (all classic Antonio Prohias ones, but nicely colored), several Don Martin classics (also colored) as well as many other… READ MORE
August 31st, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Getting back to sketches that have nothing to do with the book, here’s a fresh one. Subject: the dreamy Ryan Reynolds. Bizarre sort of reference… looked like he had a mustache. READ MORE
August 30th, 2011 | Posted in General
As promised, here are a few of the designs I did for one of the segments in last night’s episode of MAD on the Cartoon Network: From “Capt. America’s Got Talent”: Originally I did this character with a “shake weight” as part of a gag but it got changed to a spring-based chest exerciser… too much? READ MORE
