Tom's Mad Blog
February 15th, 2010 | Posted in General
I got a few cool cartoons drawn by some of the cartoonists who I accompanied on the recent cultural exchange trip to Cuba: Image ©2010 by Brian Narelle Brian Narelle drew this one on some note cards he’d brought for doing doodles on. The joke is that the one souvenir I wanted from Cuba was an EMPTY cigar box. I wanted one of the authentic wood boxes to use in the studio for pens and stuff. I had a hard time finding one, so I bought a box of 10 cigars (Partigas No. 4s) which we smoked throughout the week and brought the box back… READ MORE
February 14th, 2010 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I have a technical question for you; What rules do you use for shading your caricatures? I checked several of your examples and in many of them it is not clear to me where did you place your light source. It seems, for instance, that you imply primary and secondary sources… Moreover, do you have suggestions on where to place the light source for typical poses? In particular, with profile caricatures I have lots of problems… A: I am not sure if you mean live caricatures or just caricatures in general, but both have the same answer: the light source is placed where it… READ MORE
February 13th, 2010 | Posted in General
I had been thinking about writing a post on why doing caricature focusing on nothing but ridicule and insult is different than doing caricature focusing on capturing the essence of the subject… but my buddy Ed Steckley beat me to it. From Ed’s Blog: Caricatures that are downright mean and nasty, for apparently no other reason than to be an outlet for the creator to freely (and passive-aggressively) be a jerk and go for a cheap laughs are, in my opinion, the lowest form of caricature. ¬¨‚ĆThey have nothing to do with satire OR parody, and frankly may be the least cerebral of all types… READ MORE
February 12th, 2010 | Posted in News
Some weeks ago I blogged about a relief effort being organized by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation, the charitable arm of the National Cartoonists Society, on behalf of the Hodge family. Disney story artist and Big Idea productions director Tim Hodge‘s son Matthew was seriously injured when his car was struck by a train last August and remains in a coma. Tim being self-employed, the Hodge family has short term medical insurance that will not fully cover all of their bills, and Tim’s available time to work is limited by the care Matthew needs. This effort, Help the Hodges, is headed up by current NCSF… READ MORE
February 11th, 2010 | Posted in News
Bobble Rep, the iPhone app for which I did 543 (yes, the number keeps going up as members of congress get replaced) caricatures for, keeps getting a lot of praise and attention. Developer Ray Griggs called me the other day to say the app was listed as the number one recommended “Educational” app by the just released book Incredible iPhone Apps for Dummies by Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus. Upon getting a copy of the book, I did indeed read a very positive review of the app on page 30, listed first under “Education”. The author mentioned the internet firestorm set off by the apps initital… READ MORE
February 10th, 2010 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Better late than never for the “Sketch o’the Week”. After all that writing about the unedited Robert E. Howard Conan stories now available I couldn’t resist doing a sketch of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1981 role that launched him to action hero superstardom. I remember seeing that movie in the theater as a kid (don’t recall how I got into an “R” movie at age 14… I suspect I might have used less than honest means). The film is a weird amalgamation of elements from many different Howard stories, and was cheesy fun. I just noticed I forgot to put the gum on the bottom… READ MORE
February 9th, 2010 | Posted in General
It occurred to me as I was about to start this post with “I am a big fan of Robert E. Howard‘s Conan the Barbarian stories and…” that I start a lot of posts that way. This seems especially true when it has to do with authors of book series: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien, Frank Herbert, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King… maybe I am a sucker for epic tales and the continuing adventures of recurring characters. However, when I say I’m a “big fan of” something, I always mean it. I read the Conan books way back in junior high, and enjoyed then thoroughly.… READ MORE
February 8th, 2010 | Posted in Freelancing
Every once and awhile I will pull out some artwork from an old job that might have been interesting to share what it was about. Yesterday I cleaned out a storage room in our house and ran across a pile of old art that I had done for a series of CD-ROM games back in the late 1990’s. I’ve said many times you never know where your work might end up being used, and sometimes the most unlikely of projects will come your way when you freelance. If someone had said to me that I’d be “illustrating” a series of CD-ROM games I would have… READ MORE
