Mailbag
August 28th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: While drawing live caricatures each spectator is a potential next customer. But what are you doing at the beginning? Are there some methods or tricks to get the first customer? A: I assume by “live caricatures” you are referring to live RETAIL caricatures, meaning a stand at a theme park, fair or some other event where those getting drawn pay for the caricature as opposed to at a gig or event where the client pays and the subjects get the drawings free. There are a lot of answers to this question. Everyone has their own philosophy regarding the “sales” aspect of live caricature. I’ve… READ MORE
August 21st, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’m looking for an efficient method of coloring live caricatures. I’ve seen many different ways to do this, what method do you recommend? A: That’s a tough one because, as you point out, there are a lot of different ways to do it. I’ve seen live caricaturists use colored chalk powders and a cotton glove as the “brush”, pastels, prismacolor stix (which are sort of crayon-like but really more like the stuff inside colored pencils), watercolor and many other techniques including the one I use, airbrush. I’ve seen them all used to great effect, but I prefer the airbrush simply because I have used… READ MORE
August 14th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How do you go when you have to caricature someone who has no discernible features? Case in point, the actor Peter Davison who played the fifth Doctor Who. Back in the day many artists had a lot of trouble capturing his likeness particularly when it came to painting his likeness to use on book covers and other pieces of merchandise – even a number of comic book artists had that problem. They couldn’t find a “hook” for his face as the actor was in his late twenties, he had a very smooth face and had facial features that didn’t lend themselves easily to caricature. … READ MORE
July 31st, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you ever “recycle” your art? I mean: maybe there is an idea or a concept which one customer did not like but another customer could like? Or maybe you could recycle some “background-elements” in more than one picture (a dog, a car, a house, etc.). Or are you even sometimes able to re-use whole caricatures? A: Yes to all of the above. If I have elements of a previous illustration or some sketch or something that will work well with a current project, I will absolutely use those elements again. This is especially true with background objects or environments and illustration jobs. I… READ MORE
July 24th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: As busy as you seem to be at San Diego Comic Con, how in the world do you find the time to answer a question for your Sunday Mailbag? A: I don’t. Thanks to Anon E. Muss for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here! READ MORE
July 3rd, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Why didn’t MAD Magazine approach you to design a Star Wars themed cover for their latest issue (#539) considering the excellent work you did illustrating The Force Awakens parody? A: First, thanks for the kind words about my art on the “The Force Awakens’ parody. Glad you liked it.To answer your question, MAD had just done a Star Wars cover a couple of issues earlier so no doubt they felt they didn’t want or need another so soon, even if the issue did contain the actual film parody. You see that a lot these days. The magazine will have a movie cover subject on… READ MORE
June 26th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When did you start doing your blog? A: Funny you should ask that. Exactly 10 years today! My first post was June 26th, 2006! Here’s the 10 year anniversary stats: Over 7.6 million page views Best day ever: 22,199 views 3,597 total posts 477 Sunday Mailbag questions answered 489 Sketches o’the Week posted Thanks to A.E. Neuman for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here! READ MORE
June 19th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: If you had unlimited time and resources, how would you expand your artistic repertoire? A: Actually if I really had unlimited times and resources, I’d learn to play the guitar. I dabbled with it when I was younger but could never devote the time and work necessary to really learn to play it. I never got much farther than basic rhythm and some cool lead licks like Ozzy’s “Crazy Train”, Rush’s “Limelight” and a few others. Thanks to Kevin Richlin for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me… READ MORE
