Mailbag
October 12th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Hello! I am a great fan of your caricatures. I have read your book again and again. Please advise me where I can buy the same adjustable easel you use. Also which prismacolor art sticks for flesh tones for all races and where t buy. YOUR BOOK IS VERY INSPIRING, in the next edition please include materials and tools in much more depth. A: I get a lot of these types of emails. I understand the curiosity but it’s a bit misguided. The tools and materials one uses are incidental have minimal impact on the work one produces. It’s the thinking and, above all,… READ MORE
September 28th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: This is more about the business side of freelancing. How do you handle billing your clients? Do you require them to pay anything upfront? Do you require payment within a certain timeframe? What if they don’t pay you? A: Much of what you are asking depends on the client. Most of my clients are companies with separate finance departments, so the responsibility of when my fee is paid lies with a different person than the art director I actually work with on the job. Some clients pay within a week or two (rare), some within a month (most) some take longer (a few). The… READ MORE
September 21st, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: The pages your draw for the TV and film parodies in MAD are very complex. How long does it take you to do that? A: As long as they give me. Actually it takes about 2 days per page. That’s from blank layout to final, colored art. Some pages go faster than others of course. It depends on the subject matter and how many caricatures or complex scenes are involved, but it always seems to even out to 2 days per page in the end. Of course, that’s just the actual art. I also spend some time researching the job (i.e. watching the show… READ MORE
September 14th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How big are your sketches of the week? A: That’s not a question with a real answer except for “almost any size”. I don’t keep a sketchbook proper, wherein I draw and then put away when it’s full. I have a couple of those but I just draw on whatever is at hand. I have a stack of 12 x 16 live caricature paper in a drawer by my drawing table, and I use this paper for most of my roughs, conceptual drawings and thumbnails for jobs as well as random sketches. I do a lot of my “sketches of the week” on that… READ MORE
September 7th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You are creating hundreds of pictures a year. As you work partly digital there are at least hundreds of files a year. Which order do you have for these files on your hard disk? Do you have one folder for each project? Do you have a folder for finished work, quasi a portfolio folder? Do you save all your files or do you delete most of them after some time? Do you have a standard procedure for your files (names, folders, etc.)? A: I don’t think it’s exactly “hundreds” of illustrations a year but it is a lot. I have three different areas where… READ MORE
September 6th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
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. (did that years ago. See Here) In the meantime, here are the basic steps: When… READ MORE
August 31st, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I have a series of questions for your blog regarding the mental state one goes through when working from home as a freelancer (or just working from home in general). Do you ever get depressed from being locked in one room by yourself for an extended period of time without speaking or seeing anyone else besides your family? (And by family I mean your wife and children who live with you). Do you ever wish you were in a studio environment alongside other artists you could have lunch with or just casually chat to on a break? Continuing on with the theme of working… READ MORE
August 24th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Today’s mailbag is an amalgamation of many of the questions I have been getting on my new Limited Edition Print “Bats in the Belfry”, which goes on sale online here tomorrow: Q: How many prints in your limited edition? A: Just like the last two prints, there will be 450 of them, all hand numbered and signed. Q: How much will they be? A: $25 plus shipping, just like the others. Q: How big is it? A: Big. 11″ x 28″. Q: Will you ever reissue the print after the limited editions are sold out? A: Nope. Both the James Bond and Doctor Who prints… READ MORE
