The Return of Tom’s Caricature Workshops!

Here is a big announcement… Tom’s Caricature Workshops are BACK!

I am nearing completion of CLAPTRAP, the long delayed crowdfunded book Desmond Devlin and I are doing, and I am beginning to make post CLAPTRAP plans including getting back to doing my two day “in person” caricature workshops in locations all over the U.S., and even overseas!

When the pandemic hit in 2020, I was doing eight to ten workshops a year and had multiple ones lined up for the summer and fall of that year. Thanks to COVID I had to either cancel or postpone and reschedule them all. I eventually managed to get most of those in over the next 18 months, either teaching them well masked up and during windows of relaxed pandemic protocols. I haven’t scheduled any new ones except the “trial” one I did in Las Vegas in December since the pandemic started. Well, that’s all changing in the second half of 2023. I’ve got six workshops scheduled starting in June, and may add another before the end of the year.

What are these workshops all about? You can read about all the details here, but essentially they are small group workshops lasting two days, where I teach my theories and practical techniques on drawing caricatures in person. The class size is limited to 14 people, so there is plenty of time for individual instruction. It’s intense, because we really draw our asses off. I don’t put headphones on and do a single long caricature illustration while you watch and then go into a corner and work on your own stuff by yourself. I draw with you and the entire class. I talk about what I am doing as I am doing it. I look at what you are doing and work with you and everyone in the class all weekend.

Participants also get some swag, like a digital copy of The Mad Art of Caricature, which they can download immediately after registering for a workshop. They also get some of my prints, books, etc. We also do a unit on “live” caricature, so I will draw everyone’s live-style caricature. I also do a class caricature illustration for each workshop, so participants get a print of the whole class like this one:

This is done in the same technique I use for the stuff I do for my MAD parodies, so you get to see what you’d look like in MAD Magazine without having to star in a TV show or movie!

Here are the workshops I currently have planned:

• Sedona, AZ June 24-25th
• Eagan, MN July 1-2nd*
• Denver, CO Aug 5-6th
• San Francisco, CA Sept 9th-10th
• Dublin, Ireland Sept 22-23rd**
• Orlando, FL Oct 7-8th

* The Minnesota based workshop is a little special because the venue is only about 2 miles from my home, so I also host an optional welcome party at my place the Friday night before the workshop. Food and drinks provided, and we tour my studio, look at lots of original art, and I demo some of my illustration techniques right where I spend all my time doing them. 

** The Dublin workshop is one I had to cancel because of COVID back in June 2020, the rescheduled for September 2020 but of course that also did not happen. I finally have a chance to do it there, and it will be my only overseas workshop for at least another year.

A $100 deposit reserves your spot in a workshop! These have sold out pretty quickly in the past so don;t wait on it too long.

I’m excited about getting back to doing these workshops because I enjoy teaching. In the couple of years since I was doing them regularly I have come up with some new ideas and directions for explaining concepts that I think are much better and more focused. In fact some of my very philosophy about approaching caricature has changed recently and I am incorporating those new concepts into my workshops. I tried some of that out in Las Vegas back in December and it went over well. 

I hope I’ll get to draw with some of you in 2023!