Tom's Mad Blog
February 28th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When drawing live caricatures I am finding it very difficult to get faster (under 8 minutes) and keep things pretty recognizable and well observed. I have your book and have been sequencing my drawings, looking for that t-shape with the eyes and nose, and squinting my eyes to see the head shape, but I am still pretty slow. When working live should I just focus on accuracy and speed will come in time? Or should I focus more on speed and accuracy will come in time? It is a difficult balance to achieve, any advice you could give me would be helpful. A: Finding… READ MORE
February 26th, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Those who frequent comic book shops and comic cons will be very familiar with “Sketch Covers”. For the rest of you, a sketch cover is a comic book (or magazine, or…) that has a blank cover with just the book’s title graphics in place. These are either the actual cover or, more often, a second cover on top of the printed cover and stapled in as a single comic. Sketch covers use a cardstock or heavyweight paper that is suitable for drawing on in pencil and marker, hence the name. Every time I do comic cons I get more than a few people who ask… READ MORE
February 25th, 2016 | Posted in Freelancing
… from an illustration project coming soon to a magazine near you! This is an extreme close up of a full(ish) page illustration using my “colored line” technique. It’s sort of half way between colored line art (ala MAD) and a full painting. I ink it like I would comic book style work then isolate the line and color it rather than leaving it black. It makes for a softer look at more mainstream magazine art directors go for that as opposed to colored line art, which has an inescapably “comic book” look. READ MORE
February 24th, 2016 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
Another classic rock sketch, “The Rolling Stones” frontman, Mick Jagger. As always the original sketch is available in the Studio Store. READ MORE
February 23rd, 2016 | Posted in General
L to R, top row: Bruce Higdon, Sergio Aragonés, Mo Willems (Reubens emcee), Jeff Smith, Terry Moore. Second row: David Apatoff, Jenny Robb, Luke McGarry, Matt Diffee, Lynn Johnston, Paul Coker Jr. Front: Jan Eliot, Maria Scrivan, Deborah Peyton. Members of the National Cartoonists Society should have received the official brochure for the 2016 Reuben Award Weekend in their mailboxes in the last few days. NCS president Bill Morrison asked me to do the art for the brochure cover again this year (see above). With it goes the announcements of the speaker lineup and special award winners: Paul Coker Jr.– Recipient of the “Milton Caniff… READ MORE
February 22nd, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised, here’s a sneak peek at some of the art for MAD #538’s parody of the last two “Hunger Games” films, written by Desmond Devlin: What do you mean you want to “read the word balloons????” What do you think this is, a furshlugginer library? Go out and buy a copy, clod! READ MORE
February 22nd, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Available tomorrow everywhere magazines are still sold (if you can find any of those places)!!: Cover (Mark Fredrickson) Letters and Tomatoes (Ed.) The Fundalini Pages (Chris Houghton, Bob Eckstein, Caitlin Bitzegaio, Desmond Devlin, Rick Tulka, Tom Hamilton, Matt Lassen, Paul Coker, Jeff Kruse, Phil McAndrew, Tom Cheney, Mike Morse, Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer, Samuel Ferri, Josh Mecouch, Shannon Wheeler, Justin Peterson, Kenny Keil, Kevin Pope, P.C. Vey) Donald: GOPNuts- A MAD Political Movie Poster (Uncredited) A MAD Look at Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Sergio Aragonés, colorist: Jim Campbell) William Shakespeare, Pothead? (Desmond Devlin, Rick Geary) Taylor Swift Fun Facts (Mike Morse & Evan… READ MORE
February 21st, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I know of this particular theme park caricature operation that has this policy to seat only one subject at a time when drawing a caricature with multiple people in it, thereby allowing people int he drawing to see it before it’s finished. The company’s reasoning is that while one of the guest is being drawn the other subjects(s) will draw a crowd to the caricature booth by standing and watching. I’ve seen so many artists at fairs and other theme parks sit couples together, even groups, when drawing them. What’s your general take on this and how do you prefer to work? A: The… READ MORE
