Tom's Mad Blog
March 2nd, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I just read your tutorial on inking from your blog. I just have a question regarding cleaning brushes and nibs after doing ink work. What would be an effective way to do this? What should I use? I just bought myself a brand new nib and brush, and I’m afraid of ruining them right away. I just want to make sure that they’re in good condition before I use them again. A: Ink is a nasty thing to dip a brush into. Permanent, waterproof ink? Even with careful cleaning your brushes will only last so long, but you can make them last as long… READ MORE
March 1st, 2008 | Posted in General
I’m furiously trying to wrap up a MAD job today before taking off for St. Louis for the NCN Mini-Con where I will be speaking and doing a workshop on inking. So, no time for a real blog post today. Next week I will be blogging live from the mini-con with lots of pictures of artwork and other fun stuff, and on Friday look for the next installment of my “How to Draw Caricatures” tutorials. I hope I’ll see a few MAD Blog readers at the mini-con! READ MORE
February 29th, 2008 | Posted in General
I’m really under the gun trying to get my latest MAD parody job wrapped up. Sorry, but no “How to Draw Caricatures” post this week. Next week for certain, though. READ MORE
February 28th, 2008 | Posted in News
I’ve written several times about the Orphan Works legislation, and it’s implications on freelance illustrators. This post describes it best, but here it is in brief: The Orphan Works Act is a change to copyright law that allows any party (publishers, advertisers) to use a piece of intellectual property (a photo, illustration, cartoon, etc.) if the owner of the copyright of said piece of intellectual property cannot be identified or located. The law requires a ‘reasonable effort’ to search for the copyright owner, but does not define what a ‘reasonable search’ entails. The law also limits the money that can be recouped by the copyright… READ MORE
February 27th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A quick pencil study of “My Name is Earl” star Jason Lee. READ MORE
February 26th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Here’s an entire illustration project from start to finish. The steps are not frequent enough for this to be a “how to”, but it does illustrate the process pretty thoroughly. The client is “The Marlin Company”, which produces workplace and employer communication subscription materials. Part of their products are posters that communicate important workplace ideas and concepts like “Teamwork” and “Quality”, etc. I do art for a humorous line of these posters almost every month. I get the concept and description of the ‘scene’ I need to illustrate. My job is to create an image that is humorous yet gets the message across clearly. This… READ MORE
February 25th, 2008 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
The above is a very quick gag cartoon I did for a travel agent website that is now up and running. I was supposed to do regular cartoons as updates but I don’t know if that is going to happen. I’m just throwing it up here for the sake of having some art in this post, since as always I can’t share my latest jobs until they see publication. I’m going out of town to St. Louis and the National Caricaturist Network Mini-Con on Sunday, so last week and this week have been/are crazy with my trying to get all my jobs out the door… READ MORE
February 24th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: As a college art student, or a freelancer, one is faced with many late nights in a row working to meet deadlines. I’ve had many of these instances and I found myself very sleep deprived, but I still had to push on through. I found that the motor skills start to detiriorate after several days of little to no sleep. Inking becomes very difficult and even sketching can be a challenge, not to mention trying to be creative in such a state. Have you ever experienced this, and how do you deal with it. A: Monster Lo-Carb. Seriously, I know what you are saying.… READ MORE
