MAD Magazine
August 9th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Things are piling up on the drawing board once again. Part of the problem with freelancing is that you never know when the next phone call will be your last for a while. As a result, you tend to take on more work than is good for you, for fear of a possible dry spell just around the corner. I’ve been very lucky in that I seem to get steady work, and it’s a very rare time when I have nothing on the drawing board at all. Here’s what’s on the board right now: Marlin Company workplace poster- another image illustrating a teamwork message… this… READ MORE
August 8th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It occurred to me I never posted much of a “sneak peek” at the upcoming Hell’s Kitchen MAD parody. I just used the image of Gordon Ramsey from the splash as part of my color mini-tutorial. Here’s a few more images from the parody, due out in September in MAD #470. Sorry, no words. That’s MAD’s job, and you’ll have to buy the furshlugginer magazine to get those! A section of the spash page… ??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć READ MORE
July 27th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised, here is a scan of the inked version of the section of the splash page I had previously posted in pencil form: When comparing the two, you can see where I added to??ᬨ‚Ćand changed the drawing while inking. That all goes back to what I said before about the necessity of drawing while inking, and not just mechanically tracing the pencils. I changed his nose somewhat, added texture and more??ᬨ‚Ćdisarray to his hair, fleshed out some of the backgrounds and other??ᬨ‚Ćdetails and used both crosshatching and a little bit of a wash to add some values. I am coloring the piece so a… READ MORE
July 25th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised, here is a quick peek??ᬨ‚Ćof part of??ᬨ‚Ćthe pencil rough for the MAD “Hell’s Kitchen” parody. This is a “reality” show that starts with 12 contestants all trying to be the last chef standing??ᬨ‚Ćto win their own resturant in Las Vegas. This is a caricature of the main antagonist, head chef Gordon Ramsey. He is a very interesting guy, very magnetic and highly volitile. He makes the show pretty entertaining. He also has a face that a caricaturist would salivate over… a heavy brow, craggy features and a nose like a potato glued to his face. This one is much better than my first… READ MORE
July 24th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
So far I have managed to enter something in this blog almost every day since it’s inception, although an argument can be made as to if I actually had anything to say all those days… but I digress. This little recurring feature, entitled “On the Drawing Board” will give visitors a look at some of the projects I’ve got in progress, complete with some images of the roughs or various other stages. Right now I have three jobs in the works: The Ralph Nader vs. GM images for the Museum of Tort Law– I just finished the color comps for this job. Not much to… READ MORE
July 23rd, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Q: How do I break into MAD? A: If you want to break into MAD, the easiest way is with a grappling hook, 50 feet of rope, a glass cutter and suction cups. You can bribe your way in on Wednesdays with home baked cookies offered to Dick DeBartolo. Seriously, getting into MAD is notoriously hard to do, but it isn’t quite the impenetrable fortress it was in the 70’s and 80’s. Back then MAD had their legendary freelancers in their prime, and there was frankly very little work they had in the magazine that one of their established and well known “Usual Gang of… READ MORE
July 20th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Now we are in the home stretch! It’s time to get coloring. Those of you who are looking for a tutorial on my painting techniques will be a little disappointed I’m afraid. In order to do that I need to save steps along the way, and I did not do that with this or any past job in anticipation of a tutorial. My apologies, but I will save those steps the next chance I get, and will put together a real tutorial on how I paint my line art soon. In the meantime, here are the basic steps: When painting I used to use a… READ MORE
July 19th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Now that the inks are all done, erased and cleaned up, it’s computer time! First the pages need to be scanned in sections, then placed together to make a complete page. This is roughly as much fun as getting poked in the eye by a sharp instrument, but it is what it is. I invested in a very large scanner to simplify my life and cut down on popping veins in my forehead. I use a Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL, which is a flatbed with a 12″x17″ scanning area. I use their ScanWizard Pro software and scan directly into Photoshop.¬¨‚Ć Even so, a two page spread… READ MORE
