Tom's Mad Blog
March 10th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
Some time ago I wrote about the long anticipated tablet Mac finally having become a reality thanks to Axiotron. They have created a modification package that turns an Apple MacBook into a tablet based computer… it’s like having a Cintiq monitor combined with a laptop in one contained unit. Here’s a video I ran across recently demoing this new unit with Axiotron’s leader and some artists doing work on it: It’s great they have a comic book artist doing the demo, and a nice portrait of the reporter… too bad they didn’t say his last name. The show apparently is a local one from Hawaii.… READ MORE
March 9th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: When is an illustration completed ?? As a freelance illustrator and cartoonist for almost 25 years, I still have the problem not knowing “when to stop”. I sometimes OVERWORK my illustrations which means I start to loose the more spontaneous feel. A: I think a lot of illustrators have this problem. It’s easy to get very involved with what you are doing and overwork something. By “overwork” I mean to keep rendering or working on a piece, adding more and more to it, until you compromise the effectiveness of the illustration. Often that means making the piece too “busy”, where the eye can’t figure… READ MORE
March 8th, 2008 | Posted in News
Within the pile of studio mail waiting for me upon my return was the official ballot for the National Cartoonists Society‘s Reuben award for “Cartoonist of the Year“. This award is the ultimate recognition for any cartoonist. Here’s what the NCS website has to say about the significance and history of the award: THE OUTSTANDING CARTOONIST OF THE YEAR is chosen by a secret ballot of the members of the National Cartoonists Society. The REUBEN AWARD is the highest honor that the profession bestows. As with all the NCS awards, the winner need not be a member of the Society. The award was previously called… READ MORE
March 7th, 2008 | Posted in News
Well, I’m back from the St. Louis NCN MiniCon. It was a great time even though I spent a good part of it frantically working on the last few pages of a MAD parody. That ended up being alright as I set up shop in the main competition room and everybody got a chance to see me work and ask me questions or just chat. My presentation on Monday went pretty well, although I really need to take out a lot of art from the PowerPoint show… it took two hours to go through it all. The inking workshop also went well… frankly it was… READ MORE
March 6th, 2008 | Posted in News
Unless you’ve been to one of these events, it’s really impossible to impart the sheer creative energy and inspiration that you find there. These pictures do not tell the story, but it’s the best I can do. Imagine a large ballroom full of artists drawing and painting in dozens of different styles and mediums. The walls about the ballroom have taped off sections with numbers above them, and each artist has his or her designated space. Gradually these spaces begin to fill up with caricatures… spanning the spectrum from a typical live, quick draw style to an elaborately rendered illustration. By the end of the… READ MORE
March 5th, 2008 | Posted in News
A few pictures from Tuesday at the NCN MiniCon: Teresa “Okie Artist” Farrington‘s marketing seminar The “Party Style” competition in action Ed Steckley‘s “Psychology of Caricature” seminar Ed’s enraptured crowd… Sorry about the lack of art pictures and info, but I was swamped finishing up a MAD job, prepping and then conducting my cartoon inking workshop. Tomorrow I will have a full report with plenty of pictures of artwork, and maybe even a few sketches of my own of some attendees. READ MORE
March 4th, 2008 | Posted in News
Monday at the NCN St. Louis MiniCon is in the books. The seminars went well with Joe Bluhm, Marlene Goodman and Dave “Bippy” Boyer all imparting some great information. Joe did a demonstration of a digital painting technique that was terrific. He’s a talented artist and his ability to paint is top notch. I learned a lot from his seminar. Marlene did a talk about using markers with caricature and Dave did his legendary seminar on health and caricatures. Unfortunately I spent almost all of the day working on the last bit of my latest MAD job, so I missed those as well as the… READ MORE
March 3rd, 2008 | Posted in News
The St. Louis NCN MiniCon kicked off nicely last night with an icebreaker reception at the convention hotel. There is a very good turnout for this event, including two artists from Japan, one from Korea and one from Israel! Today’s festivities kick off at 9:30 with an opening meeting and speakers throughout the day including Joe Bluhm. Artists are already sketching away at the icebreaker “The Nose”caricature agency’s Tad Barney, Minnesota illustrator James Hungaski and former NCN president and Golden Nosey winner Roger Hurtado Caricaturists Mel Lothrop, Angie Jordan and Dan Laib All the way from Israel- Or Weitzman St. Louis caricaturists Jim Batts, Ryan… READ MORE
