Tom's Mad Blog
November 4th, 2018 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Did you ever had fear of disappointing a customer? Did this change over time or is this just a fear for beginners? A: I’m assuming you are referring to “retail” live caricature, where you are selling your caricatures directly to the subjects like at a theme park or a fair setting. That’s mostly an issue with very beginning artists, although I suppose anyone can have those fears. It’s a result of not having confidence in your work. It’s actually pretty rare because the very act of doing live caricature, spontaneous drawings at speed with an audience looking over your shoulder and the subject of… READ MORE
November 3rd, 2018 | Posted in General
Thanks for all the great feedback on the possible second edition of the book. I received a lot of great thoughts as well as some enthusiastic support of the idea. Some of the suggestions were things I was already planning on doing, and some were things I didn’t realize people would like to see added or see more of. The second book will contain (among other possible things): Rewritten and rethought concepts and approach of caricature fundamentals throughout New sections or expanded sections about drawing children, older people, specifics like mustaches. beards, glasses, etc. A chapter on drawing/exaggerating bodies Expanded chapter on live caricature techniques,… READ MORE
November 2nd, 2018 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I’m going to start posting a look at my favorite panel from my most recent MAD job, just for fun… and to give me something to post. In MAD #4 I did the art for a parody (kind of) of the “Svengoolie” TV show, a classic horror movie show where host Svengoolie plays a different old school horror flick and intersperses facts about the film and cast along with comedy bits throughout the movie. The show is on MeTV, which mainly shows reruns of old TV shows. The gag in the parody is that these reruns keep mashing up into the movie Svengoolie is showing,… READ MORE
November 1st, 2018 | Posted in General
I mentioned this in passing a few weeks ago here, but I am seriously considering doing a substantial rewriting of my book The Mad Art of Caricature“. In teaching all these workshops I have come up with some new concepts and ways to explain the process of seeing and drawing a caricature that I think are worthy of inclusion. To be honest, these workshops have changed the way I approach my caricatures as well as how I teach others. That said, it will be a lot of work to revamp the book because I am not talking about adding a couple of pages of fluff.… READ MORE
October 31st, 2018 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I’m looking forward to seeing the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” soon, so I thought I’d take a new stab at the late, great Freddie Mercury. As usual, the original of this sketch is available in the Studio Store. READ MORE
October 30th, 2018 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Monday MADness becomes Tuesday MADness this week as I needed yesterday to conquer the last deadline that kept the blog so quiet last week. Done. Recovering. I did the art on this one page gag piece for MAD back in 2014 for their website, turnaround time 14 hours. That was rare thing back then, but a precursor to the new MAD website where they do quick turnaround gag cartoons all the time. MAD ended up printing this in issue #531. Here’s a look at the pencil (ok, DIGITAL) sketch: As you can see they made me change Obama’s face from the last panel. If I… READ MORE
October 28th, 2018 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I am impressed with your use of perspective even in your more cartoony/humorous work. Do you use the old school methods of “vanishing points” and map everything out, or do you just wing it? A: Mostly I just eyeball the perspective, and the results are far from perfect. My main goal as far as perspective goes is to draw something that does not feel “odd” or “off” so as to distract the viewer from the main focus of the illustration or panel. That seldom needs perfect two or three point perspective… just getting it in the ballpark usually does the trick. If I’m having… READ MORE
October 26th, 2018 | Posted in News
I had so many people on the waitlist for my sold out January Orlando FL workshop that I have booked a second one for the next weekend, Jan 18-20th. Some of the waitlist people have been dragging their feet registering, so I have opened the remaining spots to everyone. Don’t wait around if you want to be a part of it! READ MORE
