Tom's Mad Blog
August 24th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Upon viewing the Phelps drawing it prompts the question, how much of your style is based on comic book drawing?¬¨‚Ć I kind of get the impression that what sets your work apart from others is that you draw caricatures the way a Marvel or DC artist would. A: In my opinion not much of my style of drawing or caricature is based on comic book work, and none of it is intentionally. My main style of caricature was developed from doing live caricature work at theme parks, and my experience with comic book style illustration is rather limited. It’s hard to pin down where… READ MORE
August 23rd, 2008 | Posted in News
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the availablility for purchase of the sculpted Sherlock Holmes pen that was based on my illustrations of Holmes for the audible collection of the complete Sir Arthur Conan Doyle collection One Voice Chronological: The Complete Holmes Canon. That announcement was a bit premature, as the web page meant to enable buyers to purchase the pen was having some trouble. Well, that is all corrected and the new ordering page is up, running and seems to work great on either a PC or a Mac, at least on my Mac using FireFox. While you are at it, visit… READ MORE
August 22nd, 2008 | Posted in News
One of my favorite comic strips is “Mother Goose and Grimm” drawn by the incomparable Mike Peters. Always funny, great artwork… one of the best done strips ever, IMO. Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum, a part of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh that exhibits cartoon art shows and events, will be opening a “Mother Goose and Grimm” show in October: From Joe Woos and The ToonSeum: Opening Friday October 17th– Mother Goose and Grimm: the Art of Mike Peters. Meet the creator Mike Peters and Grimmy on Saturday October 18th at the Children’s Museum. Free smiley cookies to the first 150 guests thanks to Eat N Park! October… READ MORE
August 21st, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
My home theater is my little oasis from the real world, where I can sink into a comfortable leather recliner and become fully immersed in a good (or sometimes not so good) movie via a dedicated, totally dark room and a setup of pretty high end audio visual equipment. Since the last time I wrote about my theater, I have upgraded my projector from a 720p Sim2 to the Marantz VP-15S1 1080p DLP projector, my pre/pro and video scaler from the Sunfire Theater Grand VI and a DVDO iScan VP-50 respectively to the awesome Anthem Statement D2 integrated Pre/Pro and scaler. Coupled with a 103″… READ MORE
August 20th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I very seldom get sick but yesterday I was knocked for a loop by some kind of bizarre flu. I finished up some pencils that were a bit overdue in the morning while fighting nausea and the cold sweats, then spent the day in bed alternating between shivering and sweating. Not fun. I am bouncing back a little now. Here is a 15 minute sketch of Olympic superstar Micheal Phelps. It’s almost cheating drawing this guy, he’s so easy to exaggerate. I had heard of the “Vitruvian Man” comparison that has been reported from several sources. At 6 feet 4 inches his arms stretch, from… READ MORE
August 19th, 2008 | Posted in General
It’s been a while since I posted about the audiobooks I often enjoy, or at least listen to, while working at certain stages of a project in the studio. I’ve mentioned before that I only listen to audiobooks when I am inking or painting, and only then to books I have already read or am very familiar with. This is because at the rough/layout/pencil stages of a project there is too much concentration and thinking needed to pay any attention at all to an audiobook story. Even when I am at the inking and coloring stages, I cannot listen to a book that I have… READ MORE
August 18th, 2008 | Posted in General
It’s not really a deadline keeping me from posting today, but just all the catch up I need to do after my very short trip to New England to visit my Six Flags park. It amounts to the same, however… READ MORE
August 17th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How often does a client give you a vague idea of what they’re after (saying “We like you, we trust you – just go with it!”) – and how often are the jobs incredibly specific from the start? Which is your preferred method of working, if you have one? A: It depends on the type of project and the client’s style of art directing. Most of the time it’s somewhere in between those two extremes. In general when a client calls with a project they have some idea as to what they are looking for. Those ideas usually involve an explanation of the message… READ MORE
