Mailbag
April 17th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: During your time as a live caricaturist, have you ever drawn a person who looked like a famous person? And did you use this similarity in your caricature? A: I honestly can’t think of any specific examples of that, but I’m sure it happened. My standard gag would have been a pin/button on their chest saying “President of the So-and-So Look Alike Society”, or in the case of them looking like a teen heartthrob I’d have some pimply girl or boy in the background looking lovestruck at them with a “I <3 So-and-So” T-shirt. High brow humor, that. What would happen more often is… READ MORE
April 10th, 2016 | Posted in General
Q: Congrats on doing your first cover for MAD, but my initial reaction to seeing your post was “this was his FIRST cover???” Why did it take so long for you to get a cover? A: MAD has always tended to use different illustrators for the covers than they do interiors. Norman Mingo, Richard Williams, Kelly Freas, and a host of others, most recently Mark Fredrickson, have done basically nothing but cover art… but a lot of it. Mort Drucker and Jack Rickard are the only two regulars from the interior of the magazine that have done 30 or more covers, and their styles were… READ MORE
April 3rd, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
A: Hi Tom! Two questions. First, what mandatory actions will inevitably take place that you feel in your gut will be guided by destiny to sky rocket the popularity of the printed MAD magazine on a path to go above and beyond the highest peak in readership from the 70s to three million readers once again making reading MAD cooler than listening to Led Zeppelin while having sex on a motorcycle that sits on top of a skateboard on fire with a cigarette in your mouth, just like it already is? I am probably not supposed to reveal this, but MAD does have a proposed… READ MORE
March 20th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What kind of music or background ambiance do you use while working in your studio? Do you prefer silence or do you like to rock out depending on the project? A: I don’t select my listening preferences based on the project so much as what part of the process I am at. I listen to music, either from my digital library or the radio, when I am doing concept work like layouts, comps, pencils, etc. Those stages of a job require a lot of thinking and experimenting, and everything is just background noise for me when doing that sort of work. If you want… READ MORE
March 6th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: My question is how do you manage your time between the multiple projects, appearances, gigs, marketing, etc.? I’ve revived my caricature business and I’m trying my best to keep on top of these things myself and learning what I can and putting into practice what works so I would love to hear some ideas of your “time management” (more like self-management). A: For starters, I’d advise NOT writing on your blog when you have a pile of work sitting on the drawing board behind you! Seriously, there are not that many secrets to managing your time (something I am actually not that great at)… READ MORE
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 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
February 14th, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
A: You mentioned that you are still trying to improve your drawing skills. How do you to this? Let’s say you are not content with the noses you are drawing. Are you then doing some hours of exercises on noses? Or are you just paying more attention if you are drawing noses while working? Q: I am constantly seeking to get move forward as an artist, cartoonist, and storyteller. I do not have any specific “exercises” that I do to improve my skills, so I had to think on this. How DO I work on getting better? I came up with four important things: Mindset-… READ MORE
