Tom's Mad Blog
July 6th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You make cross-hatching look so easy. Mine always ends up looking like a messy patchwork quilt. What’s the secret to good cross hatching? A: Well, thanks for the compliment but I don’t consider myself much of an expert on crosshatching. With me it’s an exercise in controlled chaos. If you want to see a caricaturist who uses crosshatching to great effect, check out the work of Jan Op De Beeck or Vin Altamore. Here’s a basic crosshatched pattern one layer at a time: Some History- Crosshatching is a technique for adding values to a drawing by layering intersecting lines together to create the illusion… READ MORE
July 5th, 2008 | Posted in General
Don “Mr. Crayola” Marco has apparently been getting a lot of internet “press” in the last two years mainly from sharing via e-mail. My friend and fellow cartoonist Ken Alvine of Sioux Falls, SD sent me an e-mail about this artist because he was born here in my homestate. I do not know where the following bio came from: Don Marco was born in Northern Minnesota in the late 1920’s.??ᬨ‚Ć His interest in art was evident even before starting school.??ᬨ‚Ć As a young adult in the Army Air Corp, he began his life’s career in Air Traffic Control, which continued until his retirement from Honolulu… READ MORE
July 4th, 2008 | Posted in General
This is the closest thing I seem to have to a Fourth of July image… at least it’s a parade! Have a great and safe holiday, America! READ MORE
July 3rd, 2008 | Posted in News
… good question. It’s “before the legislature” right now, meaning the 110th US Congress somewhere, but is not on the radar for imminent discussion or voting, and both the house and senate are about to take a break until the second week of August. However this can quickly change as bills often get pushed through on the backs of other bills that our esteemed congressional leaders want to see approved for their own reasons, and will vote for one to get votes for the other. Opposition or endorsement of a law is also dependent on whether it applies to someone or not in the sleazy… READ MORE
July 2nd, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is a quick study of the late, great Spencer Tracy from a photo reference circa 1942 1967. READ MORE
July 1st, 2008 | Posted in General
Ugh. Currently paying the price for my time away from the studio… and I even spent a good part of my time away WORKING!! READ MORE
June 30th, 2008 | Posted in Tutorials
This series of “How to Draw Caricatures” tutorials are 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 these 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 freeplace 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.… READ MORE
June 29th, 2008 | Posted in General
Q: I read your recent posts about Will Elder and Bill Gaines, and how you never got to meet them. What MAD legends have you met, and who do you still want to meet? A: I want to meet everybody of course, be they “legends” or just your run of the mill members of the “Usual Gang of Idiots”. Meeting the “legends” is unfortunately becoming a little more urgent a goal. Sadly a few of the early artists and writers from MAD have passed away. That’s not surprising… MAD‘s 500th issue will be on newsstands in February of next year, which also marks MAD‘s 57th… READ MORE
