Tom's Mad Blog
May 26th, 2019 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’ve been drawing caricatures at events for 34 years. Although I have seen improvement just from so much repetition and paying attention to certain things, I am sick and tired of my work. It’s not bad work, per say, but I feel I have plateaued. My work fills the requirements of what I do pretty well and nothing more. I dream of reinventing myself in terms of style. Sometimes I can push my work in the direction I want to go, which is more cartoonesque, and abstractly simple, but I never truly break out of my rut. I envy artists who look at a… READ MORE
May 25th, 2019 | Posted in General
Earlier this month I hosted a VERY limited number of students at my home in Burnsville, MN for one of my caricature workshops. I kept this one to only six students, so there was a lot of one-on-one time. Here’s the class illustration. For the record, it wasn’t really cold here at the time (in the 60’s I believe) but I needed a Minnesota gag. Don’t ask about the banana. READ MORE
May 24th, 2019 | Posted in General
Whenever I do a festival or comic-con There is always one question I inevitable get asked. Well… two actually. The first is “where’s the closest bathroom?” The second, usually coming from the parents of a kid who is showing me some of his/her artwork, is “is art school worth the time and money?” I got that one three times at last weekend’s NCSFest. I wrote a long-winded post about that a few years ago, and as I have nothing more to add to it, here’s that post again: Should I go to Art School?: I get this question often, especially from young artists (or the… READ MORE
May 23rd, 2019 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
This was for a series of really cool trading cards a semiconductor manufacturer named Rochester Electronics did back in 2011. They had a whole cast of characters and the hero, Captain Rochester, fought semiconductor counterfeiting. That might not sound like a big deal but as semiconductors are used in all sorts of equipment and stuff that can actually be very dangerous if bad conductors are used, it was/is a real issue. Anyway, Rochester Electronics did these cards with a lot of artists from the National Cartoonists Society and other well know comic book artists. They even did at least one issue of a comic with… READ MORE
May 22nd, 2019 | Posted in News
I’m going to try posting this again because for some reason the main image in yesterday’s post got broken. I also got access to the original files. One of the coolest things about NCSFest this past weekend was the “Windows Trail” where over 50 businesses in Huntington Beach signed up for cartoon/comic window display. Each business got paired with a cartoonist and they they got custom designed windows for the Festival. I got assigned to local gym “F45” (go figure) so I used a combination of existing art and did some new stuff, all with bodybuilding/fitness/beach themes. Mark Wahlberg is part owner of the gym,… READ MORE
May 21st, 2019 | Posted in General
One of the coolest things about NCSFest this past weekend was the “Windows Trail” where over 50 businesses in Huntington Beach signed up for cartoon/comic window display. Each buiness got paired with a cartoonist and they they got custom designed windows for the Festival. I got assigned to local gym “F45” (go figure) so I used a combination of existing art and did some new stuff, all with bodybuilding/fitness/beach themes. Mark Wahlberg is part owner of the gym, thus his inclusion. Here are a few pics. READ MORE
May 20th, 2019 | Posted in General
The inaugural NCSFest was a rousing success! Loaded with stellar programming and with a booming Main Street Marketplace, we had fantastic crowds and a lot of fun. If there was any downside, it was just that there was so MANY panels and speakers happening simultaneously at the Big Tent, the Huntington Beach Arts Center, the Library and the premium events at the Hyatt, it was tough to choose what to go and see and some of the programs had small crowds as a result. I know some people who nay-sayed this Festival as just another comic-con in the middle of where two of the biggest… READ MORE
May 17th, 2019 | Posted in News
2:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main Street, Huntington Beach, CA. Be sure and bring a sketchbook and some pencils, as we will be drawing several faces! Then be sure and stick around to enjoy all the great exhibits at the Arts Center that are also part of NCSFEST! You need to RSVP for the class, as space is limited. If things are full, you can always just enjoy the exhibitions at the Arts Center! READ MORE
