Mailbag
August 21st, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: ¬¨‚ĆI have been looking to your drawings for inspiration, and I have realized that they look very clean and flawless. So my question is do you find yourself making a lot of mistakes when drawing or even sketching? How often do you erase, if at all? What is your tool of choice for erasing? (because I can seriously never tell so it must be damn good). A: Of course I make a lot of mistakes when I sketch, and I do plenty of erasing. The sketches I post for the “Sketch o’the Week” are usually ones I have “tightened up” a bit, meaning I… READ MORE
August 14th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I noticed, when trying to re-learn cartooning, that daily and Sunday strips seem to not always have backgrounds. But comic books and MAD mags usually always have some kind of back ground in each frame. Sometimes I find doing backgrounds tedious or even distracting, but I feel I am cheating myself by avoiding them.¬¨‚Ć I also noticed a similar effect with daily/Sunday’s showing most or all of the shots from the same perspective. Whereas, comic books/MAD see to redraw each from a different angle. Are there reasons why daily/Sunday strips skimp or cheat as opposed to comic books and MAD? A: What you are… READ MORE
July 31st, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I know you have already covered the basics of exaggerating but I’d really love to pick your brain a bit more about seeing your subject; what to exaggerate and emphasise and what to play down. For example drawing familiar faces, friends or relatives or even celebrities you’ve ‘known’ for years. Or drawing characters like Lemmy Kilmister, who looks like a caricature already. It seems really hard to analyze someone’s face that far without over-analyzing and losing the big picture. A: Well, that’s the trick to caricature. It’s exactly those decisions, what to exaggerate and what not to, that dictate the success of a caricature… READ MORE
July 24th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I know of several excellent caricature artists that, from time to time, copy celebrity photographs found on the web in “caricature” form and then sell these works as art-prints. Are these artists at risk of copyright infringement as “Derivative Works”? I understand that some protection is offered under the Fair Use exceptions involving parody/satire, but I’m not sure if this would offer a bulletproof defense in court … especially when I look at the art involved in the famous Rogers v. Koons case involving Derivative Works. Of course, I have no idea whether these artists are getting permission from the source-photo’s copyright holder, which… READ MORE
July 17th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How has technology changed how you work? A: It has revolutionized every aspect of it, from how I get work to how I communicate with clients during the process to how I deliver the art. I became a professional illustrator in 1990, right as the personal computer was starting to take hold in the world of publication and print. “Desktop publishing” was just starting to get serious, having been mainly a curiosity in the late 80’s and not used by professional publishers. That all changed as the years went by and the software became more powerful and easier to use. Keylining, layouts, paste-up, half-toning,… READ MORE
July 10th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Uh oh… looks like the mailbag is empty! Well, it’s not really completely empty, but the only ones I’ve got right now are of the “can you teach me how to cross-hatch?” or “how do you exaggerate people in caricature?” which aren’t really questions so much as they are requests for long and involved tutorials, and are needing a lot more time than I can give for this weekly feature. A good Sunday Mailbag question can certainly involve an image or two and a somewhat long answer, but anything like a tutorial is a different matter. So, if you have questions concerning cartooning, illustration, freelancing,… READ MORE
July 3rd, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: As a young artist, I try to practice drawing cartoons and caricatures. From your point of view, what are some good famous people to draw to help me improve in all areas of drawing caricatures? Example– (insert famous person here) is good to draw to practice on hair and wrinkles. A: There is no good answer for that because just about any face, celebrity or otherwise, will provide good practice for some feature or other. In fact, the process of looking for a face that you would identify as being good to practice drawing hair, wrinkles or any other aspect of the face is… READ MORE
June 26th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I love the MAD show on Cartoon Network! Its got just enough MAD Magazine in it to seem like part of the “Usual Gang” but is also different and appealing to the “Robot Chicken” crowd. How did the show do? Is there going to be a second season? What did you think of the work you did on the show? A: I’ve been told MAD on the Cartoon Network did very well in viewership and with viewer response, although I do not have any numbers to back that up. It must have done pretty well, as they announced that it was being picked up… READ MORE
