Tom's Mad Blog
April 4th, 2011 | Posted in General
This link on Mark Evanier‘s excellent blog about the most terrible (or awesome) breakfast cereals got me thinking about the oddity that is the American breakfast cereal. First, the fact that 95% of all breakfast cereals are about as far from what anyone would consider a good thing to eat for breakfast as it’s possible to be. I know there are plenty of breakfast cereals that really ARE good for you… high in fiber and with natural vitamins and minerals… but as a kid I hated that crap. I wanted the sugary stuff, man! The kind of cereals I liked probably had less nutritional value… READ MORE
April 3rd, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I see whenever you mention working digitally, you cite “PhotoShop” as the software you use. Why PhotoShop? Painter seems to be more of an artist-orientated program with a lot more choices for emulating natural media. Why don’t you use Painter? A: I have also heard that Painter, and least compared to previous versions of PhotoShop, was a much more artistically versatile program. I dabbled in it once and found there was a dizzying number of choices as to drawing and painting media, paper and canvas textures and ways to mimic natural media down to applying watercolor “wet” and then “drying” the watercolor whenever you… READ MORE
April 1st, 2011 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
I’m currently working on the last parts of my book on drawing caricatures and a new episode segment for “MAD” on the Cartoon Network, which is all keeping me pretty busy. I should be able to share work from MAD #509, a few magazine jobs including a cover illustration and some other goodies this month. In the meantime, here is my latest workplace poster job for The Marlin Company: The pencil sketch The final artwork READ MORE
March 31st, 2011 | Posted in News
The National Cartoonists Society Foundation, the charitable arm of the NCS, announced the winner of the 2011 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship yesterday: 2011 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship Winner March 28th, 2011 The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) is happy to announce the winner of the 2011 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship. Diana Huh, is a sophomore at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she studies history. Huh was chosen from over 100 applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award weekend in Boston in May. The scholarship applicants submitted eight examples of their… READ MORE
March 30th, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is a bit of a cop out… as it was part of a preliminary drawing for a cover illustration job I did recently. The subject is reality TV… uh…. “star” Kim Kardashian. The image changed quite a bit after the client’s art direction. I will be able to share that final art sometime next month. READ MORE
March 29th, 2011 | Posted in General
A few months back the website The Cartoonist Studio put together a media press release about their official launch, and tapped a few of the cartoonists on the site to do a drawing for one of the recipients. I did this little spot illustration for the packet that went to The TODAY Show. If you haven’t visited The Cartoonist Studio, you should. It’s a virtual tour of the studios and work of (currently) 23 professional cartoonists including those working in editorial cartooning, comic strips, illustration, gag cartooning, greeting cards, etc. It’s fun to see the faces and places behind some work you are sure to… READ MORE
March 27th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’ve read on your blog that you have several caricature booth stands in a few different amusement parks around the country. How did you get into that and how can someone apply for a job drawing caricatures? A: My first real “art” job, outside of a few commissions for friends and others, was drawing caricatures at Six Flags Great America theme park in Gurnee, IL just north of Chicago. I got the job by answering a flyer ad with the headline “Can You Draw?” that was hanging in the studio arts building at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis while I was attending college there. It… READ MORE
March 25th, 2011 | Posted in General
The Lovely Anna and I are headed to Southern California on a business/fun trip. Sadly it’s cold and rainy there, but at least there’s no snow. READ MORE
