Tom's Mad Blog
May 12th, 2008 | Posted in General
Caricaturist Jan Ibelings, a fellow member of the National Caricaturists Network, posted a few pictures on the NCN forum of some live caricaturists he saw working on Piazza Navona on a recent visit to Rome. He snapped the following pictures to show how several of the street artists had samples on their display boards that were copies or rip offs of many NCN members or well known caricaturists (click the pics for a closer look): In the photo above there are two Sebastian Kr?¬?ger‘s that I recognize. The others are of varying styles as well. Kr?¬?ger’s Stallone, as well as Joe Bluhm‘s Tom Cruise. On… READ MORE
May 11th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Hey, Tom, I’m a daily reader of your blog and would like to hear you talk about getting started, i.e. your first steps into the cartooning field. A: I can certainly tell the story of how I got started in cartoning but it wouldn’t apply much to today’s market. Circumstances change with time and what was true then is no longer true now, just as breaking into the cartooning field in the 60’s was different than it was when I did it in the late 80’s. I went to college at a small art school called the School of Associated Arts in St. Paul,… READ MORE
May 10th, 2008 | Posted in General
I’ve written a lot about the latest incarnation of the misguided Orphan Works Act, so rather than rehash any of it I’ll just point to this post for the facts and serious issues the bill raises to creative professionals. Briefly, my stand on the bill is that it has serious implications for those who make a living creating new creative works for publication and commercial use, and that the supposed purpose of the bill (to preserve work that is truly “orphaned” so it is not lost in time) would be better served with new definitions and laws for “fair use” of a copyrighted work. I… READ MORE
May 9th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Here’s a quick sneak peek at some of the artwork on the parody of “30 Rock” I did for the most recent issue of MAD: Pencil Roughs for Splash Page- Click for a closer look… Final Splash- Click for a closer look I also really enjoyed the show itself, which I found clever and funny. It’s always better, considering the time it takes to do one of these, to have some emotional reaction to the subject matter from which to draw energy. Love it or hate it, either give you some source with which to work. Indifference is the killer… that’s when it becomes difficult… READ MORE
May 8th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic shops now and on news stands May 13th: MAD # 490 (June 2008) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Paul Coker, Dick DeBartolo, Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer, Garth Gerhart, Darren Johnson, Jeff Kruse, Jacob Lambert, Randy McIlwane, Bob Staake, Ward Sutton, Rick Tulka) “30 Crock” (Arnie Kogen, Tom Richmond) Superdelegate (Joe Rayola, R. Sikoryak) The Top-Secret “Indiana Jones Memo” (David Shayne, Jack Syracuse) A MAD Look at Science Fairs (Sergio Aragon?¬©s) Embryonic Jones and the Temple of Womb (Desmond Devlin, Richard Williams) Monroe and… Evolution (Anthony Barbieri, Tom Fowler, Ryan Flanders) MAD’s Rusty Iron Man Outtakes (Uncredited) A-Hole Foods Market (Kiernan P.… READ MORE
May 7th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
No time for a real sketch this week so here is one of the small preliminary drawings I did for a politically orientated product job a few weeks ago. This one is of “Mr. Honesty” Carl Rove. One of these days I’ll be able to post the finished art from that project. READ MORE
May 6th, 2008 | Posted in General
… things are getting a little piled up in the studio and with my Valleyfair operation opening this weekend the blog posts may be a little thin this week. For those who have inquired, the caricature tutorial series will continue later this month or in early June with another installment. Thanks for the interest and I’m sorry for the delays in getting to the next tutorial. In the meantime, here’s yet another CGI-Superhero video I found on YouTube: [youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=RV9j5Yq4W9Q&feature=related[/youtube] Not nearly as good as the Iron Man / Spider-Man / Hulk one I linked to a week or so ago, but this one does have… READ MORE
May 5th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
I try hard to time my workflow around any traveling I have to do so I do not need to do coloring or any computer work on projects while “on the road”. I much prefer the familiar settings and equipment of my studio and my Cintiq 21UX for that kind of thing, and can much more easily draw and ink in hotel rooms or in less accommodating environments than to do the coloring or painting on a job. Still, sometimes it’s unavoidable, and I bring my Macbook Pro and Wacom Intuos tablet along to work on the finishes for a project. On my last road… READ MORE
