Tom's Mad Blog
December 23rd, 2008 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Two big jobs wrapped up yesterday, which leaves a new project for Penthouse (no naughty stuff, just funny) and more of the column header caricatures for The Independent on the board right now. I can’t share the Fade In job until publication, but as always the client for the workplace poster jobs doesn’t mind my posting the images I do for them upon completion. So here is the latest of those posters: Initial Pencil The job was to do an image of a harried looking nurse thinking about a relaxing getaway on a beach, being served hand and foot. The first pencil rough above needed… READ MORE
December 22nd, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I did this warm up sketch yesterday and, since I am extremely busy with a few jobs that need wrapping up today it’s all I have time to post. The subject is actor Samuel L. Jackson. This was from a small picture out of an entertainment magazine that jumped out at me as a good representation of him. Often reference pictures just do not capture a subject in a way that really speaks to the viewer of the subject’s complete persona. This is especially true of certain “rubber faced” actors or ones who change their looks drasticlly from role to role. Jackson can look very… READ MORE
December 21st, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: As an artist who has done a lot of caricaturing both in the past and currently in your career-when you go out in public do your eyes see people in caricature form? In other words your eyes are trained to study peoples faces for caricature do you find your eyes constantly studying people as if you’re working? Also have you ever gone out-met someone briefly-gone home and been able to draw them from memory with great accuracy to test your visual recall? A: To the first part of your question: Yes, I’m afraid I cannot look at a person without seeing a caricature of… READ MORE
December 20th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Too busy for a lengthy post today so instead here is the first of an ongoing series of caricature spot illustrations for The Independent, a local North Carolina newspaper. It’s a small image for the header of a column on local NC politicians, printing about 3.5 x 4 inches or so. The column runs tomorrow. READ MORE
December 19th, 2008 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Pretty busy right now, which is a nice problem to have these days. Nothing for MAD yet so barring a last minute job from them it looks likely I will not be in issue #499… I sure hope I am given something for issue #500, which is going to be a big deal. Plenty to work on, though. I just finished up a couple of spot illustration jobs and a personal commission for a local corporation of their president. Here’s what’s on the board with now: The Independent– North Carolina news publication (print and online) where I am illustrating a political column with local politician… READ MORE
December 18th, 2008 | Posted in Tutorials
This short tutorial is a just a small taste of a larger and much more in-depth book I wrote called The Mad Art of Caricature! The book is 175 full-color pages, lavishly illustrated and contains greatly expanded explanations of the concepts presented in this tutorials, as well and a great deal of additional material on caricaturing other facial features, posture, hands, expression and more, techniques on drawing from live models, doing caricature for freelance illustration and for MAD Magazine. This is a must have book for anyone interested in caricature, cartooning or humorous illustration. You can order it online here. How to Draw Hands Easily… READ MORE
December 17th, 2008 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Not a very ambitious sketch this week, as I am currently swamped with work. Here’s a very quick and tiny study of actor Johnny Depp. This took me about 5 to 10 minutes. Not the most successful drawing. I’ve always admired Depp as an actor, not just for his performances but for his refusal to ride his good looks to success. I was in college when “21 Jump Street” was on TV, and Depp was catapulted to stardom and teenybopper heartthrob royalty via that show. It would have been easy to take empty but glamorous roles where his looks were as big a part of… READ MORE
December 16th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Every once and awhile I am asked to get outside my comfort zone by MAD and do something very different from the usual sort of work. Those scenarios have their good and bad sides, but mostly I enjoy thinking “outside the box” and doing something that is a departure from my ink and color style. Since I work digitally in PhotoShop (at least for my color), I occasionally get called upon to do a combination PhotoShop/illustration image for some specific need. In this year’s MAD 20, I was asked to do just that… as you can see in the final above. No doubt my having… READ MORE
