Tom's Mad Blog
September 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Freelancing
Me and “Weird” Al Yankovic Some time back the lovely and extremely talented Sandra Boynton commissioned me into doing a caricature of “Weird” Al Yankovic for his 50th birthday. I was deleighted to do it because 1. Sandra is one of my favorite cartoonists and a wonderful person, and I was flattered to be asked. and 2. “Weird” Al is to music what MAD Magazine is to comics, and I’m a longtime admirer of his. Here’s the complete story if you want more details. Shortly after Al received the artwork I received an email from him saying how much he loved it and how he… READ MORE
September 1st, 2010 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is one for a quick job I’m doing of Nevada senator Harry Reid. Click the image for a closer look… READ MORE
August 30th, 2010 | Posted in General
MAD writer extraordinaire Desmond Devlin sent me this link to a highly interesting article about a lively exchange between comic book writer Mark Waid and Sergio Aragon?¬©s at last night’s Harvey Awards. Mark gave a keynote speech about copyrights, public domain and the dawning new era of electronic publishing where he took the viewpoint that, with regard to rampant piracy on the internet, the “genie is out of the bottle” and that energy expended in efforts to protect ownership would be better served being used to figure out how to profit from one’s intellectual property. Sergio strongly disagreed and a heated discussion ensued. I wonder… READ MORE
August 29th, 2010 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: So I really want to pursue my passion for caricature and cartooning. I want to give it a go but Sunday is my only day off so live gigs are hard to come by. I look on E Lance and Solo Gig but seems like a lot of professionals are on there. So my questions are, should I capture what is going on in local news and submit my work to the A.D. Of the local papers, without contacting them first? Undercut everyone on E Lance? And last, I need to create a portfolio and needed to know what to include. Should it be… READ MORE
August 26th, 2010 | Posted in News
I think John Read needs to get a hobby. You’d think he’d have enough to do writing, editing and producing the excellent cartooning industry magazine Stay Tooned!, but apparently he has a lot of time on his hands. Instead of doing puzzles or collecting rozzers or veeblefetzers he’s put together a traveling exhibit of original cartoon strip artwork called “One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages” which features 140 comic strip and panel originals… all published in American newspapers on the same Sunday, April the 11th. Here is the show where it is currently hanging in a former jewelry store space in Northpark Mall, the… READ MORE
August 25th, 2010 | Posted in General
Currently have four projects going at once and all of them demanding roughs, final pencils or finishes in short order. No time for blogging or sketching. READ MORE
August 23rd, 2010 | Posted in Freelancing
For the freelance illustrator there are two tasks that are absolutely essential for being successful: Finding new clients Keeping the clients once you’ve found them The first one is all about marketing yourself, doing appealing work and targeting the right clients with your promotional efforts, and is universally considered the hardest part of being a freelancer: Finding the work. The second one is at least as important as the first, however. Once you find a client, doing ongoing work for them is one of the cornerstones of building a successful (and stable) freelance business. One cannot rely on a constant influx of new clients providing… READ MORE
August 22nd, 2010 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You seem to straddle the divide between traditional and digital illustration, with one foot firmly entrenched in the age old techniques of drawing and inking and the other in the modern techniques of digital color and painting. One thing I’m concerned about is the eventual disappearance of any form of original art once the digital world takes complete control. What’s your take on that? A: It’s funny how things come full circle. Way back in the day before I was a working illustrator, artists didn’t even think about stuff like the resale value of their original art, especially for magazine or advertising illustration. They… READ MORE
