Tom's Mad Blog
December 14th, 2009 | Posted in Freelancing
Here’s an interesting example of some of the strange jobs that come your way when you are a freelance illustrator. I have never given a thought to doing greeting cards. They are an art form unto themselves, blending art, writing, humor and context to make cards that resonate with buyers. Cartoonists like Sandra Boynton and Oliver Christianson (aka “Revilo”) are amazing talents. It’s one of those areas of cartooning I didn’t think my skills lent themselves to. My friend and fellow member of the “Usual Gang of Idiots” John Kovaleski disagreed. He was (at the time) working as a creative director at Marian Heath Greeting… READ MORE
December 13th, 2009 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: A bunch of us were at a live caricature gig lately, complaining about how hard it is to juggle all of our different freelance projects. How do YOU do it? I know there is no “typical” day in the life of a freelance cartoonist,¬¨‚Ć but how do you juggle your administrative duties with your caricature venues (and all the traveling involved), with your freelance career? All this, in addition to all¬¨‚Ć the public appearances you make, in addition to making blog posts everyday! A: I get this question a lot whenever I do any kind of speaking engagement or meet up with other artists… READ MORE
December 12th, 2009 | Posted in General
If you’ve never watched any of cartoonist Tom Gammill‘s “How to Draw” video shorts, you are in for a treat. They are clever, funny and always entertaining. As of this writing there are two dozen installments… the video above is one my favorites. You can check them all out here. READ MORE
December 11th, 2009 | Posted in General
Image ©1971 by National Lampoon Back in October of 1971, National Lampoon published a scathing parody of MAD that is today the stuff of legend. National Lampoon, like most humor magazines of that time (and a lot of humor period over the next several decades) owed a lot to MAD and its artists and writers were obviously heavily influenced by the magazine. As a result the parody, while being pretty brutal and pulling no punches, seemed much more of a needling with love by a close relative than a bitter attack. The staff of MAD, as the story goes, were delighted with it.¬¨‚Ć National Lampoon… READ MORE
December 10th, 2009 | Posted in General
I’m working on a very different project right now, designing political characters to be used as the basis of some 3D animation for a documentary film. This is WAY outside my comfort zone. You might think that since I draw caricatures of the same actors over and over in a MAD parody that it wouldn’t be that hard for me to draw a “turn around” of a caricature of someone. Not so. It’s a totally different animal to design a caricature that when rotated on an axis remains consistent in it’s proportions and exaggerations. The first character I was told to work on was former… READ MORE
December 9th, 2009 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I did this quick study of Justin Timberlake from a picture out of an entertainment magazine that really caught my eye… mostly the interesting figure captured at a moment of balanced motion. READ MORE
December 8th, 2009 | Posted in General
Yep, here’s yet another time lapse “live caricature” style example from my 1993 demo video… this time of Rhea Perlman, one of the cast of the legendary sitcom “Cheers”. Also regular blog readers will be happy to know I am almost to the end of that demo reel. 🙂 READ MORE
December 7th, 2009 | Posted in Freelancing
This is beginning to become a Monday ritual. It’s 1:20 a.m. and I’m still up working on a job due tomorrow. Sleep is overrated. READ MORE
