Sam Viviano facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sam Viviano |
|
|---|---|
Viviano at the 2012 New York Comic Con
|
|
| Born | March 13, 1953 Detroit, Michigan |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Caricature, Art Director |
|
Notable works
|
Mad magazine |
Sam Viviano was born on March 13, 1953, in Detroit, Michigan. He is an American artist who draws funny pictures of people, called caricatures. He is also an art director, which means he helps guide other artists and designs how things look in a magazine.
Sam Viviano's caricatures are special because he often draws people with wide jaws. He does this by looking at faces from both the front and the side. He is also very good at drawing large groups of people in one picture. For a magazine called Institutional Investor, he once drew sixty caricatures in just nine days!
Contents
Early Life and Education
Sam Viviano grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. There, he earned a special degree called a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He graduated with very high honors.
Starting His Art Career
In 1975, Sam Viviano moved to New York City. He wanted to show his art to people who could hire him. His art school drawings included cartoons and other styles. But at first, he didn't get any jobs.
He took a job designing patterns for textiles (fabrics). He soon realized he needed to pick one type of art to be really good at. He decided that drawing caricatures was what he enjoyed most.
He started advertising his caricature work in special books for artists. This helped him get his first big job. He drew a full-page ad for a James Bond movie called Moonraker in New York Times newspaper.
Working for Mad Magazine
Before working for Mad Magazine, Sam Viviano drew for other magazines like Dynamite and Bananas. Many people told him his style would be perfect for Mad Magazine.
In 1980, the editor of Mad Magazine, Al Feldstein, called him. Their usual cover artist had passed away. He asked Sam Viviano to draw a cover for Mad #223 (June 1981). This was Sam Viviano's first time drawing for Mad. The cover showed an actor from the TV show Dallas. Sam Viviano was so nervous that he drew the picture twice!
This issue didn't sell very well. Because of this, Sam Viviano didn't draw for Mad again for four years. But after the editor retired, Sam Viviano started drawing regularly for Mad. He became known for his funny movie parodies and fake advertisements in the magazine.
Other Art Projects
Sam Viviano has also created art for many companies and for advertising. His work has appeared in popular magazines like Rolling Stone, Family Weekly, Reader's Digest, and Consumer Reports.
From 1981 to 1992, he taught a class on caricature at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He taught his students that caricatures use exaggeration to show something true about a person. One of his students, Hanoch Piven, became a famous illustrator too.
Sam Viviano created the first digital drawing for Mad Magazine. This was a series of funny road signs about rock concerts. It appeared in Mad #328 in June 1994.
In 1994, the editors of Mad asked Sam Viviano to join their team full-time. He said no because he wanted to keep working on his own projects. But in 1999, they asked him again to be the magazine's Art Director. This time, he said yes. As Art Director, he leads a small team that designs and creates the art for Mad Magazine.
Sam Viviano is also mentioned in The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons, a big book about cartoon artists.
His Family Life
Sam Viviano is married to a doctor in New York. He sometimes includes his wife, his daughter, and other family members in the background of his drawings. He is also a cousin to a New Testament scholar named Benedict Viviano.
