Richmond Illustration Inc.

Tom's Mad Blog

Happy Day After Labor Day!

September 4th, 2007 | Posted in General

All full time theme park caricaturists know what I am talking about. The best day of the year. I wish I had it off, but… READ MORE

Live Caricatures at Valleyfair

September 3rd, 2007 | Posted in General

Some live work from Labor Day weekend at Valleyfair. Sorry about the bad lighting, cropped pics, etc. It’s impossible to take a decent picture of the caricatures out there. Also, apparently it was “Gigantic Ears get in Free Day” at the park: READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag

September 2nd, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag

Q: I read your blog post about drawing at a camp for mentally disabled people. I was wondering how do you handle drawing people with obvious physical and mental handicaps? Some subjects, like those with Downs syndrome or Multiple Sclerosis have very obvious physical traits. Do you ignore them? Gloss over them? Exaggerate them? What about people with disfigurements from accidents or such? How do you handle that? A: Great question. It’s natural to be concerned about how to treat such matters when doing live caricatures. The artist is concerned about the sensitivity of the subject, what they are thinking (or their parents) and how… READ MORE

Innocent Internet Infringement

September 1st, 2007 | Posted in General

A few days ago I posted the Deadline Demon, as I am occasionally wont to do, and I got a few comments from some readers saying how they like and use the image as chat icons. I posted the following comment of my own: I don’t know what to say to that, gentlemen. I’m flattered, but you do realize that you shouldn’t just take any image you want to from the internet and use it for whatever you want to use it for? You should at the very least ask permission of the creator, be it myself or anyone. I got two responses, one a… READ MORE

The Bourne Ultimatum- A Movie Review

August 31st, 2007 | Posted in General

Being a fan of spy novel master Frederick Forsyth, I have naturally sampled the wares of other authors who write in the genre. Some bring something of their own to the table… Tom Clancy‘s books are much heavier on the modern techno/cyber war elements, for example. Some are more like pale imitations of Forsyth. Robert Ludlum, the author of the “Jason Bourne” books among many others, falls somewhere in between. His books follow the Forsyth pattern of strong, formidable, often reluctant heros who have few equals going up against large organizations that are corrupt, evil and destructive, with sweeping descriptions of exotic locales and plenty… READ MORE

The Dreaded Deadline Demon

August 30th, 2007 | Posted in General

Sketch O’The Week

August 29th, 2007 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

Here’s something a little different for “Sketch O’The Week”. This was a rough sketch for one of several spot illustrations to accompany a story in Fade In Magazine about Hollywood talent agents. The assignment was to do a full page and three spots illustrating some of the points interviewed insiders were making about agents and how they operate. This one was rejected as they didn’t understand what I was trying to convey… the idea was to visually demonstrate how agents like to throw money around driving expensive cars, etc. Of course, a BMW Z-3 is hardly a super car, but I like drawing that car.… READ MORE

Cartooning Scholarship Reminder

August 28th, 2007 | Posted in News

It’s “back to school” time! In honor of that, and because I am way too busy right now to write any meaningful blog posts, I am reminding everybody about the scholarships in cartooning that the National Cartoonist Society’s NCS Foundation have available. Again, the scholarships are not tied to a single school or even to an art major. They are about encouraging young artists to pursue careers in cartooning, be they animators, comic book artists, editorial cartoonists, strip cartoonists… you name it. You apply by filling out an application and sending in 5 samples of your cartooning. The amounts and number of scholarships are up… READ MORE