Tom's Mad Blog
November 10th, 2015 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Thanks to sudden death in the family that took up a lot of my time in October I just spent the last two weeks digging myself out from under a pile of several freelance jobs, so actually the drawing board is a bit light at the moment. Here’s what I finished up since the beginning of the month: Two (count ’em… TWO) jobs for the upcoming MAD #537, both different from my usual work. A Marlin Co. illustration (pictured above) A couple of smaller projects that had been put off for way too long What I’m working on now: Another Marlin illustration “Z-People” comic book… READ MORE
November 9th, 2015 | Posted in Monday MADness
Back in MAD #476, April of 2007 I did the art for a parody of the TV show “Entourage”, written by Arnie Kogen. The opening splash called for one of the show’s famous party scenes where you could always count on a couple of gratuitous celebrity cameos. Here is the art progression from (very) rough sketch, final pencil, and inks leading up to the finished art above (clicky any to embiggen…): The rough sketch… The final pencil… Finished inks… READ MORE
November 8th, 2015 | Posted in Mailbag
Welcome to my every-year-or-so answer to the perpetual question “What kind of ______ do you use?”… Updated to November 2015 accuracy. In the Studio For doing my publication work I use a lot of different tools and materials. While most of what I do these days is digital I do occasionally, when the job calls for it, pull out the old paints and such. Here are the tools I like to use in the studio: Pencils– Honestly I usually use whatever I end up grabbing from my eight or so coffee cup/jars full of drawing utensils near my board. For years I used a clutch-type… READ MORE
November 3rd, 2015 | Posted in General
The last few weeks have been usurped by sudden family obligations, which has put me horribly behind on several jobs. Posting will be pretty sporadic here for the next week or so… READ MORE
November 2nd, 2015 | Posted in Monday MADness
In last week’s Monday MADness I shared a piece from MAD #471, November 2006 called “When Video Games Become Religious”. I actually had two pieces in that issue… the second being the above rare comic-strip format piece in the Fundalini Pages called “One Afternoon on Pacific Coast Highway”, commenting on Mel Gibson‘s then-recent drunken anti-Semitic rant after a traffic stop. Original pencil rough below. READ MORE
November 1st, 2015 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Based on your past experiences, do you find that it is easier to do caricatures of some people over others? A: Yes, of course. Caricature is based on an artist’s perception of a subject and their features. Some subjects have obvious physical or personality-based traits that jump right out at you, and those types of faces are easier to caricature not because they are easier to draw (they have the same features everyone else has) but because you identify what features you are going to exaggerate and how to stretch them without much effort. As you develop your “eye” for caricature, more and more… READ MORE
October 30th, 2015 | Posted in Freelancing
I have mentioned before that after over 12 years of doing print poster illustrations for The Marlin Company’s workplace subscription program, they recently moved over to full digital content including doing some limited animation on my artwork. They recently posted an example of what they do on their FaceBook page, with the above illustration as the sample. This was the first time I ever saw any of the results as well. Sorry, I have no way of embedding the video here. You’ll have to visit the Facebook link above if you want to see the animation. READ MORE
October 29th, 2015 | Posted in Freelancing
The November issue of Sports Illustrated Kids (now on news stands) features this two page spread illustration by moi depicting some popular athletes enjoying (or not) Thanksgiving. See how many you recognize. Clicky to embiggen… READ MORE
