Tom's Mad Blog
March 28th, 2007 | Posted in Tutorials
Rendering with Washes Now begins the real painting. We’ll start out with the fleshtones. It’s a simple matter to mask off the flesh areas, as they are all defined by the base color we applied. Before we proceed, I’ve uploaded my basic Photoshop color swatch palette for those interested to download. It’s not very well organized, as I add colors to it as I work on pieces that I might need to use a lot and then never erase them, so everything is all over the place, but here it is. Click for the palette file in ZIP form Mac users just click the palette… READ MORE
March 27th, 2007 | Posted in Tutorials
Applying the Base Color When coloring I start by applying a base color for each area of the illustration. The color is a mid value, which will allow me to work both darker and lighter to achieve a range of values. Since I am not working on a layer with lines to contain the colors, I cannot use the Fill tool, but have to apply the color ‘by hand’ using my tablet and pen. Actually I use a Cintiq tablet from Wacom, which is a combination pressure sensitive tablet and display, where you draw and paint right on the screen using the special stylus/pen. I… READ MORE
March 26th, 2007 | Posted in Tutorials
We begin with a piece of inked line art that we intend to color. I’m using this self caricature done for promotional purposes. It’s a simple, uncomplicated image and there is literally no background, so it will be ideal for this demonstration of the digital line art color technique I use for MAD and other clients. If you are wondering about the inking process, check out my inking tutorial from a few months ago about how to arrive at a clean, inked piece of line art. BTW, I am using Photoshop CS2 on a Mac Pro running OS X. This all works just fine in… READ MORE
March 25th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Aren’t you worried about getting sued by a celebrity for selling their caricature? Isn’t their image copyrighted somehow? A: No, I am not worried about it for many reasons. First off, I don’t sell their caricatures. I draw caricatures for publications like magazines, books and newspapers. Neither I nor they can be sued by a celebrity for using their likeness to accompany a story or article, because that’s what freedom of the press is. Magazines use photos and illustrations of celebrities all the time and the only way they can be sued if is the article that they are illustrating knowingly lies about the… READ MORE
March 24th, 2007 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Getting very busy again, and right now I am in Massachusetts for some prep work and interviewing for our art concessions at Six Flags New England. Self Caricature– I finally finished this new self caricature the other day, as I had grown to hate the other ones I’ve been using: Would you trust this man? I had a few purposes in mind for this. First the practical, which is to use it for a postcard I’ll be sending out after completing a job for a client as a “thank you/hope to work with you again” mailer. Second, I occasionally get asked for a self-image for… READ MORE
March 23rd, 2007 | Posted in News
NCS President Rick Stromoski released the names of the Reuben Award nominees for 2007 on Thursday. They are as follows: REUBEN AWARD for Cartoonist of the Year Bill Amend Dave Coverly Dan Piraro REUBEN DIVISION AWARDS – NOMINEES (listed alphabetically) Feature Animation Peter De Seve, Character Design (Fox) “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown” Carter Goodrich, Character Design (Sony) “Open Season” Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, Directors (Dreamworks) “Over The Hedge” Magazine Feature/Magazine Illustration Steve Brodner Tom Richmond Jean-Jacques Sempe Comic Book Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi Newspaper Illustration Sean Kelly Robert… READ MORE
March 22nd, 2007 | Posted in General
What fictional character has been portrayed most often in film? Tarzan? James Bond? Adam Sandler? Sherlock Holmes, the great 18th century fictional detective holds that title by a landslide. More than 75 different actors have portrayed Holmes, in well over 200 movies. Holmes was the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an author of novels, short stories and poetry from Scotland. Born in 1859, Conan Doyle led a very interesting life. He was many things including a student of medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where some of his fellow classmates included Robert Louis Stevenson and James Barrie. He served as a ship’s physician on… READ MORE
March 21st, 2007 | Posted in News
Artwork for the 2007 Reuben Speakers T-shirt. From left: Bud Grace, Sam Gross, Mort Walker and Jerry Van Amerongen. Click image for a closer look Every year the National Cartoonist Society hosts a gala wards weekend called the Reubens at some swanky hotel. I’ve been a member since 1999, and have attended Reuben Weekends in San Antonio, New York City, Boca Raton, Cancun, San Francisco, Kansas City, Scottsdale and Chicago. This year’s awards will be held in Orlando, Florida on Memorial Day Weekend. Visit the NCS website for peeks at previous awards weekends. I wrote about last year’s Chicago experience here. These are a lot… READ MORE
