Tom's Mad Blog
August 25th, 2007 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
Remember the format war heating up between competing High Definition disk flavors HD-DVD and Blu-Ray? Back when I blogged about it things were just starting to get going, and as the crucial holiday season approaches the gloves are coming off. Blu-Ray had been enjoying the lead in disk sales at about 2 to 1 over HD-DVD, thanks in large part to the “PS3 effect” and stronger studio support with Fox, Sony, Disney and Lionsgate films being Blu-Ray exclusive versus only Universal being HD-DVD exclusive (other studios produce thier films in both formats). Blu-Ray supported have been crowing victory on AV tech forums and message boards… READ MORE
August 24th, 2007 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
In the freelance world, it’s often feast or famine with regard to work… either you’ve not nothing or you are swamped. Currently I’m edging into the ‘swamped’ department: MAD- Just got a three page job for issue #483. It’s not a movie or TV parody, but it does have a number of caricatures of TV actors involved. A fairly relaxed deadline. I’m working on the roughs right now. As always, I can’t share anything more about it until publication. Workplace poster- My usual monthly job for this client. I love these assignments… they are always different and always a challenge. This month I need to… READ MORE
August 23rd, 2007 | Posted in General
I drew at Valleyfair on Monday, which was a rainy, cold, crappy day. I didn’t do many live drawings and I forgot my camera anyway, so I have no live drawings to share this time around. I did manage to finally finish that park sample of the Harry Potter kids that I posted the rough for a while back: Simple, but that’s the idea. Again, the samples up on the walls need to be representational (mostly) of the work produced on site. I thought about having sparks shooting up out of Harry’s wand… but that might be too much for the family friendly theme park!… READ MORE
August 22nd, 2007 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
After my post about this guy on Saturday, I couldn’t resist. “Tay Zonday” of “Chocolate Rain” YouTube iFame. READ MORE
August 21st, 2007 | Posted in General
I stopped doing gigs many years ago. I always hated hauling all my stuff out to some company picnic or holiday party and trying to draw with people jostling my elbows, drunks sloshing around, loud music from some obnoxious DJ in my ear and typically bad lighting. After a while I just decided it wasn’t for me. I refer all party inquiries to my best artists from the parks. That’s not to say I don’t occasionally venture out with my portable drawing table and do caricatures… it just needs to be for a good reason. Every summer I make at least two visits to Eden… READ MORE
August 20th, 2007 | Posted in General
Live caricature is an artform unto itself, combining fast art skill and technique, split second caricature observation, quick wit and a certain amount of showmanship. It’s not an easy thing to do well, and those who do it well are worthy of praise and admiration. One guy worth a lot of praise and admiration is Joe Bluhm, one of the best live caricaturists I have ever met… and that’s saying something as I have met approaching a thousand of them in my 22 years “in the business’. I blame Joe for much of my recent displeasure in my own live work, which I have been… READ MORE
August 19th, 2007 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: I am currently developing a couple of different portfolios to shop around to different companies. Each portfolio I am working on basically “caters” to that specific company I am going to send it to. I have done some freelance work in the past, as a matter of fact, as I speak, I am developing and illustrating characters for a board game expansion due out in September, but, as I develop my portfolio and ready myself to send it out to the different companies I am targeting, what advice can you give me to make a better impression on the companies I am sending them… READ MORE
August 18th, 2007 | Posted in General
The internet is a bizarre place where ordinary people become “iCelebrities” for seemingly no concrete reason other than they are on the internet and strike some unknown chord with other internet dwellers. YouTube in particular has spawned a number of iCelebrities thanks to quirky and just plain weird uploaded videos. The traditional media is starting to take notice, and as a result iCelebrities are sometimes breaking into the mainstream pop culture. Here’s a recent example: The other day in my local newspaper was a story (front page, no less) about a University of Minnesota grad student who has made a YouTube music video of his… READ MORE
