Dusty

Los Desperados Comics Launches Today

Happy to announce the launching of "Los Desperados", a webcomic written by Dan Lundin and illustrated by yours truly. We have started off with 4 pages posted and will update a new page every Wednesday. The site will display the latest page first, so if you are a first time visitor, please make sure to click on the image of the vintage trailer, and it will take you on over to the beginning. www.losdesperadoscomics.com

Lightinin' Hopkins Tattoo

What a day! Launched our webcomic "Los Desperados" today and then I get this sent from Chicago area graphic designer, Chace Brisby. He got a tattoo based off my "Lightnin' Hopkins" painting. Wow. He will send update once he gets the color filled in. I'm feeling pretty cool right now.

Moonshine

BOURBON

"BOURBON"..... this is another piece that will be on a bottle. The image features Dusty, who is a character from my upcoming webcomic, "Los Desperados", which is written by Dan Lundin. This illustration on the bottle will be available at the SLINGIN' WEST art show....

RYE

Working on some illustrations that will be attached to empty bottles. This one will be attached to a bottle of rye. I will have this and many other new work at the "SLINGIN' WEST" art show on June 9th at Revolution in Carlsbad, CA.

Slingin' West

DTB

Our family absolutely love the animation series Darker Than Black. The show is so under-rated. This illustration of Hei & Yin is a gift for my daughter, for her 15th birthday.

Cheeto

LD Poster

Lumberjack Slam

My friend Corey Capetillo is working on a website detailing his drunken adventures with friends, while dressing up as Lumberjacks. He commissioned me to come character that could be representation of his Lumberjack Slams. This was one of those commissions that was right up my alley and was SUPER fun too do. Corey gave me creative freedom to do what I want, but also gave me some references to help guide me along to what his vision was, but made it known that he did not want "lock me down". The process was that I did a bunch of sketches, before I arrived at one in which I was happy with. I then scanned the sketch, tweaked it a little in Photoshop (lengthened the leg length, etc), then in Illustrator I did the illustration. Happy to say that Corey loved it.

Walker

Illustration of Walker Redmond.

Sydney Redmond

Working on a commission for the John Redmond family. This is eldest daughter Sydney. I'll be illustrating their son Walker and other daughter Lily as well, then put them together and add background...

Andrea

Loyalty

This commissioned illustration will be put on an empty bottle of Knob Creek...

Rob & Fred WIP

A work in progress of Rob & Fred. Going to add in cactus' and possibly text under the characters. The final will be put on a bottle of Knob Creek that Rob sent me.

Said Captain.... Say Wot...

Cast of Characters

Been working on giving life to cast of character I've had living in my brain. Hooked up with an old friend, Dan Lundin, who has the writing skills to create a universe for these Desperados. Really excited about this project.... stay tuned.

Southern Comfort

Superman

Momentum

Batman for Matt

Another Batman commission done!

Process of Creation: Holmes Clock

The Buchner's

Catwoman Finished!

Catwoman

Just about finished with this Catwoman piece. I've added in some wood grains on the window sill and bookshelf since this vid.....

Holmes WIP... A little Further Along...

A little further along. Next add in the trailer home and cactus....

Holmes WIP

The Whitson Sisters

Erin

Emily

Lacey

Batman

Just finished this painting for Michael Duffy. Now on to a Catwoman piece that will be the companion to this.

Eight

The Making of Eight

Video of the process of making a commissioned illustration.

Inking Batman

Short clip of me inking a Batman painting...

Smokin' Batman WIP

This is a work in progress of a painting I'm commissioned to do. This one will be a pair, along with a painting of Catwoman.

Los Desperados TV Prints Available thru Calavera Company

Desert Skies Print

I will be offering affordable prints through Calavera Art Company. This is the first of many to come. Here is where you can purchase one:
http://www.calaveracompany.com/products/desert-skies

Thanks for the support,

T

Emo

Lacy WIP

Work in progress of a commissioned piece. Sketched, "inked", and now will work on colors and background. Not sure yet on the color scheme, but more than likely the inked line will be more tonal to the overall color way, instead of black lines.... but who knows.

Sketchbook 11/14/11

A page from my sketchbook.....

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween everyone. I really enjoy this time of the year. The vibe is amazing, creepy, yet full of sharing. Here is a little image I made in the spirit of this fun day.

If you like this image, I'm going to offer this as a 13"X19" print on Fine Art Photo Rag paper. Each print will be hand signed. $40 including shipping to anywhere in the US. International shipments add $10.

Hit me up at tom.vadakan@mac.com if interested in this print.

Happy Haunting!

T

Work Space

Working on Animation #2

I'm working on my 2nd short animation, this time I'll be putting it together in Flash. This is my 1st attempt using Flash, and I'm learning as I'm doing it. Here is a screen cap of a frame.....

Sketches for Animation #2

Working on building the characters for the next animation. Still not sure if I'm going to do this next one in Flash or continue to do it "ghetto" style....

Desert Love (Higher Res)

Here is a higher quality version of my Desert Love animation, for those who are viewing via a computer...

Desert Love

This is my first attempt at making an animation. Always wanted to have my characters move, but really didn't know how to do it. Bought some animation programs and a few books, but I'm a bit impatient..... Also couldn't get the animation programs to get the look and feel I want.... so I sort of did this the "DIY" way.... the animation is raw and the transitions are rough, but I hope that adds to the charm. This is the first of what I hope to be many more.... I'm sure they will get better as I figure things out....

Los Desperados Animation?

I'm hoping to make a short animation. I have never done one and really can't get into reading tutorials on how to make one, so I'm just going to figure things out my own way. It's going to be crude, but that is part of the charm, I hope. Here is the main character with background elements..... there will be a female character as well.... Stay tuned...

Process of Creating "Bandit Girl" Icon

I recently was hired to come up with an album cover text logo for Yonder Music artist Stephanie Fagan. Knowing that they will also want to make merch I decided to also create an "icon", something simple but strong.... The "Emily the Strange" character image came to mind, because it's so identifiable, so I wanted to create something that was simple and had that same kind of "power". Stephanie's album is called "Heart Thief" so an image of a "bandit" came to mind.

Above is a sequence of how the Bandit Girl icon was created. First I looked at photo's of Stephanie on her FB page. I then took out a pad of paper and quickly sketched with simplicity in mind, but that it's no doubt an image of Ms. Fagan. For the geeks, I love sketching with Color-Tex non-photo blue pencils. I just like how they feel. Once I got the image I liked, I then light-boxed it and hand inked it, using Windsor & Newton series 7 brushes. From there I then scanned it and re-traced it in Illustrator, making it a vector file, which now can be sized at any size and retain it's sharpness.

This was a super fun project for me, one in which the execution matched the expectations of my initial vision. That doesn't always happen. The bonus is that the client loved it!