Tom's Mad Blog
April 29th, 2016 | Posted in Freelancing
I did this artwork for a job earlier this year for a major national magazine (which shall remain nameless), who then decided not to run the illustrations. The story was about “brothers”, both fictional and in real life. They say they loved the work I did and I did all that was asked of me, but their chief editor could not make up his/her mind about the visuals. I was told they actually contracted four different illustrators to do the art for this article. I am not sure they used any of the art from the four of us. I was paid my full fee,… READ MORE
April 28th, 2016 | Posted in General
When the news broke about Prince’s death I immediately tried to think back to when I might have drawn him for a job so I could post that image along with my Prince story. I drew a blank (pun intended). I could not come up with a single time I had drawn Prince in any job, parody or image for MAD or otherwise. I remembered I used to have a sample of him up in my theme park locations, but that one is lost to the ages. No scans or record of it, and it sucked anyway. Leave it up to the experts in the… READ MORE
April 27th, 2016 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s a caricature sketch of another classic Dracula- the late Christopher Lee. Lee played Dracula in nine different films from the legendary “Hammer” studios, starting with “Horror of Dracula” in 1958 and finishing with “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” in 1973. As always, the original of this sketch is available in the Studio Store. READ MORE
April 26th, 2016 | Posted in News
I get the occasional email from folks wondering if I ever teach caricature classes anywhere. I do not, at least not on an official basis. Every year I work with new artists that come aboard at my various theme park operations, where I demonstrate the live techniques I have been using for 30 plus years… but that is very informal and not really classes or a structured workshop. I am seriously considering conducting a weekend-long caricature art workshop here in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I would set up a negotiated rate at a small hotel in my area, and we would use one of their… READ MORE
April 25th, 2016 | Posted in Monday MADness
Back in issue #428 (April 2003), MAD had me draw a two page feature entitled “MAD Sizes up the Oscars- Best Picture 2003″. Actually this was part of a longer feature that included “Best Actor” (Drew Friedman art) and “Best Actress” (Rick Tulka art), and was written by Greg Leitman, Barry Liebmann, Mike Snider and David Shayne. Here are the pencils roughs: And the finished spot artwork: Actually my first gag idea for the “Lord of the Rings” was this: But MAD made me redo it because this was their cover for that issue (art by Dale Stephanos): Cover image courtesy Doug Gilford ah well… READ MORE
April 24th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Looks like it’s that time again… no questions to answer in the mailbag. I actually only have to post this maybe once or twice a year, and only because many of the questions I get are repeats of ones I have answered more than once in the past (I’ve had this feature running for almost ten years, and this is the 468th “mailbag” post) or of the “please show me how to crosshatch” variety that are impossible to answer in a few paragraphs. It’s entirely possible that people have run out of questions. There are only so many questions people might have about freelancing, illustration,… READ MORE
April 22nd, 2016 | Posted in Freelancing
If you do caricatures as part of your illustration arsenal, election years become a busy time. I expect I’ll see quite a few political jobs for various clients over the next several months. Here’s a few images I did earlier this year for a client’s pitch of a 3D animated web series. READ MORE
April 21st, 2016 | Posted in General
Official news outlets are reporting that music superstar Prince died today at age 57. Having moved to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in 1985 for college, I was here right when the Prince “Purple Rain” rocket was going full blast and he was literally the biggest name in music. Rumors abounded at the time that, despite being a very young mid-twenties, he had already written and recorded enough music stashed in his “vault” that he could release albums regularly for the rest of his life and not have to write another song. He played every instrument and created a sound that was a huge influence on… READ MORE
