Tom's Mad Blog
December 3rd, 2006 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What do you look for when you hired caricaturists for your theme park operations? Were there ever people with no skills and you had a method for bringing them up to speed, or did you only hire people who could already caricature, and you helped prepare them for live work? A: I look for people with a natural eye for caricature, a feel for drawing the face/figure and strong drawing skills… in that order. No, they do not have to be accomplished caricaturists. Many of the artists that work with us have never done caricatures before. However they have to have an innate sense… READ MORE
December 2nd, 2006 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
The very…. uh… original Angelina Jolie: Angelina is far too thin, with sinewy, bony arms and weirdly bulging joints. She seems to have these huge, flappy, Gollum hands that are all knots and veins that hang at the ends of her arms. Her hands appear so big and heavy that they weigh down her ultra-thin arms as if she can’t lift them. Eat a sandwich, woman. By the way, I’ve decided Sundays are a day off for Sketch O’The Day. That will just be for the mailbag. I suppose I need to consider changing the name to “Sketch O’Every Day But Sunday”… but that doesn’t… READ MORE
December 2nd, 2006 | Posted in General
I read in my friend Cedric Hohnstadt‘s blog a few days ago that he received an early Christmas present from his wife: a DVD of the newly released Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. He writes a synopsis of the differences and his brief thoughts on the film. I also got that DVD as an early present from my wife (comic book geek’s wives just get it, don’t they?). I watched it the other night while working on upgrading Anna‘s computer. For those not familiar with the story, Richard Donner was the director of the original Superman: The Movie film. The original plan in 1977… READ MORE
December 1st, 2006 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Not much of a caricature, but some days I just feel like drawing and not sweating over trying to exaggerate. Everybody draws this actor as Gandalf or Magneto, but I found this old picture of him from some film where he played a military commander of some kind. Ian McKellen: It’s fun to draw well known actors from different periods of their careers… great learning experience about how the face ages. READ MORE
December 1st, 2006 | Posted in News
Well, not really, but sort of. Minneapolis has an art college called the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, which is one of only a handful of schools in the country with a full degree and program in cartooning. It’s mostly centered on comic book and graphic storytelling, but also encompasses cartooning in it’s many forms. MCAD was very gracious in hosting an art show and speaking event for our National Cartoonist Society North Central Chapter meeting this fall. Read about the event here and here. During the show’s opening I was asked if I was interested in speaking at the school and/or participating in… READ MORE
November 30th, 2006 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
I’ve got a TV parody for MAD in the works and I’ll be really going to town on that starting today. Here’s my latest poster illustration for the workplace poster client: Honestly, many of these poster jobs turn out so-so and I’m not always thrilled with the final results. This one I thought was a fun one and it shows in the final. Interesting scene, lots of fun, expressive faces to draw and the kind of interacting crowd and environment I always find fun to work out and render. It’s always a nice break when I do something without having a caricature involved. READ MORE
November 29th, 2006 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Recent Octogenarian, singer Tony Bennett: READ MORE
November 29th, 2006 | Posted in News
I had no idea the following was going on: FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP Groups Form Illustrators’ Rights Coalition A coalition of U.S. illustrators’ organizations have come together to speak with one voice on behalf of artists’ reprographic rights. That was the message delivered by the Illustrators’ Partnership to the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO) which met in conference Oct. 28 ?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ” Nov. 2 in Auckland, New Zealand. Representing the coalition were artists Cynthia Turner and Brad Holland of the Illustrators’ Partnership and Terrence Brown, Director of the Society of Illustrators. The twelve groups are: The Illustrators’ Partnership The Association of Medical Illustrators The… READ MORE