Richmond Illustration Inc.

Tom's Mad Blog

The Dreaded Deadline Demon

April 13th, 2010 | Posted in General

We might be seeing this ugly guy a bit over the next two weeks… I’ve got a lot on my plate just now. READ MORE

Over on Mark Evanier‘s terrific News From ME blog you’ll find this post about the passing away of Mienhardt Raabe, who was one of the last surviving cast members of the Wizard of Oz, specifically of the Munchkins. He played the munchkin coroner. Mr. Raabe was 94. I never met Mr. Raabe but I was honored to have some of my artwork included in a book about his life… a very unique book not only because it told a fascinating tale about a very fascinating man who lived a very fascinating life… of which playing a munchkin in “The Wizard of OZ” was only a… READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag

April 11th, 2010 | Posted in Mailbag

Q: Have you ever had a client that wanted things done in a certain way that looked bad? Did you try to educate them, refuse to do the project, or just complete it as they asked even if you thought it looked bad? A: Yes, certainly. There have been many times where I disagreed with the art director/client’s idea of what would result in the best solution for their project. There are basically three kinds of art directors: The “do whatever you want” ones- These are the ones that tell you what the project is and then let you do whatever you want without direction.… READ MORE

Working for A Song.. Wrong?

April 10th, 2010 | Posted in General

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE[/youtube] Over on the Alan Gardner‘s excellent blog The Daily Cartoonist I found a link via Tom Spurgeon‘s excellent blog The Comic Reporter to this excellent post concerning the solicitation of creative work for free. I have written about this topic before here and here, and previously linked to the video above, which was mentioned in the comment discussion on the Daily Cartoonist. Another great (and funny) example of this kind of thing is an e-mail exchange between a graphic designed and an art director who was trying to get him to do some graphs and graphics for nothing that was floating about the interwebby… READ MORE

Caricatures in Massachusetts

April 9th, 2010 | Posted in General

I am on my way today to the bustling town of Agawam, Massachusetts to help set up and draw at my theme park caricature operation there at Six Flags New England. Yes, I will actually be drawing in the park on opening day (tomorrow), so come on by and get a caricature done! READ MORE

Required Reading for Dummies

April 8th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine

I’m pretty busy (read: SWAMPED) in the studio right now prior to another trip to another theme park to open up another caricature operation for the season… this time in Springfield, Massachusetts at Six Flags New England. On the return from the last trip I found that The Lovely Anna had bought a copy of 1001 MAD Pages You Must Read Before You Die (Crammed into 864 Actual Pages) for me. This is another “Barnes and Noble” exclusive book like MAD About the Movies: The Director’s Cut printed in black and white and at a smaller size than the magazine pages. I was surprised to… READ MORE

Sketch o’the Week

April 7th, 2010 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

This week’s sketch continues our ink-wash countdown to the series finale of “LOST”. Our subject this week is Ken Leung, who portrays Miles Straume, the son of one of the Dharma Initiative’s main scientists and a man who can hear the dead speak… I couldn’t resist the little gag. Definitely not my most successful attempt with this technique, but you can’t win them all. READ MORE

From Hermann

April 6th, 2010 | Posted in General

Artwork ©2010 Hermann Mejia Back a weekend or two ago I visited NYC and got a chance to sit in on a mini watercolor workshop with some pals and MAD artist Hermann Mejia. Hermann did s few demos for us and gave us pointers while we slapped the paint around. He also did a couple of quick studies himself. He gave me the little treasure above, an unfinished watercolor “sketch” of Sarah Jessica Parker. His painting seems so effortless. Amazing stuff. READ MORE