Tom's Mad Blog
June 2nd, 2009 | Posted in General
Well, ask and ye shall receive… sort of. I promised on Sunday I would dig up an old video montage I had made back in 1993 of me doing several caricature samples in time-lapse format for my caricature locations. The father of one of my caricature artists did video editing work, and put together this demo video for me. We used it as a looping display at my booths in the Mall of America and at Underground Atlanta, and in between each “sample” there was text telling people how long they took, etc. This video is ancient… to give you an idea it was originally… READ MORE
June 1st, 2009 | Posted in General
It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s Sherlock Holmes, the great fictional detective. I’ve done numerous Holmes illustrations for audiobook collections, designed a Sherlock Holmes pen and am somewhat of a scholar on the “Canon” i.e. Conan Doyle’s original 56 short stories and 4 novels. However I am not very well versed on the thousands of works by other creative people with Holmes as their subject including the numerous films, TV series, stories books and comics. Shame on me, perhaps, but I’ve always felt that while you can certainly enjoy the interpretations of any source material you can… READ MORE
May 31st, 2009 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When drawing live caricatures (theme park) how do you decide whether to have a couple or just a single person be drawn in the 3/4 view or frontal? If it’s a couple do you draw the woman first, or does is not matter? Also, do you have or can you put up a video of you doing a live theme park caricature to show us how your technique is done? Since it’s officially the theme park caricature season I thought these might be some good mailbag questions today. When drawing live caricatures (theme park) how do you decide whether to have a couple or… READ MORE
May 30th, 2009 | Posted in Freelancing
I received this link courtousey of fellow caricature illustrator Patrick LaMontagne‘s blog. The funniest thing about this video, which depicts “real world” equivalents to some all too typical examples of client/creative freelancer interactions, is that it’s basically spot on with some of the things clients occasionally try to pull. Fortunately for me I have a lot of terrific clients that treat me as professionally as I treat them. I’d be lying, however, if I said some of the things in this video do not remind me of a few past clients. READ MORE
May 29th, 2009 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
After the intensity that was the book job I had prior to Memorial Day, I actually don’t mind having a light board right now. I’ve got a small project for MAD #501 to finish up, and then no other jobs pending. Just in time for me to turn to my theme park operations and give them a little attention. I just finished up this poster job for The Marlin Co., which they allow me to share on the blog right away. Due to some of the layers being merged and then saved I don’t have a copy of just the inks, but here is the… READ MORE
May 28th, 2009 | Posted in News
I think I have mentioned this before but as it’s not been officially announced quite yet it was probably only in passing, but the ToonSeum in Pittsburgh will be having a show of my artwork in August and September of this year. It should be formally announced sometime in June, but the show will feature about 25 to 30 of my MAD and other originals, plus work from some of the artists who have influenced me. I am busy pasting up text and graphics onto the original inks from MAD pages so they are readable, as that always adds to the art… it’s not as… READ MORE
May 27th, 2009 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
This one’s a little different. A quick study of a jockey and race horse from a picture of the latest Kentucky Derby. READ MORE
May 26th, 2009 | Posted in News
Sundays at the Reuben Weekend are always the most laid back and relaxed of the event. Any pressure of the shows, awards, speakers or other parts of the weekend are behind us and it’s time to just kick back and enjoy the company. This year NCS luminary Cathy Guisewite generously opened her nearby home to the members for a backyard picnic dinner. She allowed everybody to tour her home, studio and guest house while the grounds were transformed into party area with catered Mexican food and cocktails. Needless to say, as one of the most successful cartoonists in the last several decades, her home was… READ MORE
