Tom's Mad Blog
January 30th, 2019 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
No time for a Sketch o’the Week” today, but I thought I’d try and clear some space in my flat files by not just sharing these but offering them up for sale… the complete story pencil roughs (seven pages!) from MAD‘s parody of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” aka “Harry Plodder and the Torture of the Fanbase” from MAD #480, Aug 2007, written by Desmond Devlin! Splash page above, the other five pages below. Available in the Studio Store. READ MORE
January 29th, 2019 | Posted in News
I had an sudden opportunity to add a workshop for early May here in Minnesota, so this just announced: a workshop May 3rd-5th in nearby Eagan, MN! I usually like to give people 6 months notice before a workshop, but this weekend suddenly opened up for me and I won’t be able to plan a workshop here in Minnesota at any other time in 2019, so this was my chance… just a little over three months until this workshop!! These Minnesota workshops are unique in that the Friday part of the class takes place here in my home and studio. We have a little welcome… READ MORE
January 28th, 2019 | Posted in Monday MADness
I few weeks ago I started occasionally sharing favorite panels from the art I did for each of my 2018 parodies in the “new” MAD Magazine. I figure this would make a good ongoing series, especially for my usual “Monday MADness” posts. I might as well start from the very beginning, so here is one of my favorite panels from my very first ‘continuity’ (the MAD staff term for a movie or TV parody), the parody of “Malcolm in the Middle” from MAD #403, March 2001, written by Desmond Devlin So, why this panel? Honestly this was a choosing of lesser evils. I did this… READ MORE
January 27th, 2019 | Posted in General
Q: Do you have trouble capturing the likeness of some subjects and if so how do you fix it? A: How to capture a likeness is too big a question to answer here, but I do have some things that I do if I am struggling with a getting a good likeness for a particular subject: Get more photo references– This is hands down the most helpful thing you can do if a likeness is eluding you. Trying to base a caricature on a single image means you are relying solely on the information that picture gives you. Lighting, angles, odd expressions, lens distortion and… READ MORE
January 25th, 2019 | Posted in General
In the last week or so I’ve had three pals write and tell me they are having problems delivering digital artwork to clients and having said clients complain that the images are “too small” or “too low a resolution”. They are confused about the differences between resolution and physical size of a piece of art, and how those are related and how they are different for print and for web/computer screen display. I thought about doing a mailbag post on this subject, but I think a full blown post/article is in order: Understanding Physical Dimensions, Pixel Dimensions and DPI When you are working with a… READ MORE
January 24th, 2019 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s one last warmup sketch from my workshop last weekend… Liam Neeson. READ MORE
January 23rd, 2019 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s another “Workshop Warmup” sketch from my Orlando class last weekend: A young Emma Watson as Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter films. Apparently there is some kind of list of female subjects for a “caricature challenge” going around where you draw a caricature of a different subject every day for the entire month of January. Emma Watson here was on that list. WHO THE HELL HAS TIME FOR THAT??!?! READ MORE
January 22nd, 2019 | Posted in General
People seemed to like the “Workshop Warmups” I posted last week from my Orlando Workshop that took place Jan 11-13th, so I thought I’d post the ones from my second Orlando workshop that took place this past weekend. On the second day of the workshop, we always start out doing three warm up sketches. I have the class suggest a subject, I find an image online to work from, and then we project it on the screen and do a quick caricature while we listen to music. No instruction, just a few “getting the juices flowing” studies. 10 minutes per warmup (although I tighten them… READ MORE
