New bronze cameo necklaces availablein my Etsy store

Following on from my previous post, I now have even more pendants on my Etsy store. This time in bronze / Antique Gold tones.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/161800511/wolf-fashion-bronze-antique-gold-tone

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/161790862/neytiri-avatar-fashion-bronze-antique

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/161791690/geisha-fashion-bronze-antique-gold-tone?

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/161793366/azazel-x-men-fashion-bronze-antique-gold?

I've fallen in love with the Azazel pendant just a little bit so I might have to make one for myself ;-)

New Silver Cameo Necklaces

I've been hard at work this afternoon (well I suppose that's a matter of opinion) making new silver tone cameo pendants from my artwork for my Etsy shop... and here they are, 3 lovely new necklaces. Snap them up before I decide I should keep them for myself ;-)

Geisha

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/161467289/geisha-fashion-silver-tone-cameo?ref=listing-shop-header-2

 Neytiri

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/161464008/neytiri-avatar-fashion-silver-tone-cameo?ref=listing-shop-header-1

Wolf

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/161475533/wolf-fashion-silver-tone-cameo-necklace?ref=listing-shop-header-0

All 3 necklaces are made from nickle free settings with glass cabochons. The chains they sit on are also nickle free. £6 each plus p&p.

Win a wolf pendant

Would you like to win this lovely wolf pendant featuring my artwork? Well get over to my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration and enter my prize draw for your chance to win!

The winner will be drawn out of a hat on 1st September 2013. Good Luck!

Azazel - Then and Now

Unsurprisingly I follow quite a few other artists on Facebook and just recently a lot of them have been doing "then and now" posts. The idea is that you take a painting that you did a couple of years ago and re-paint it in your current style to see how much your style has changed and your technique improved.

When I decided that attempt a then and now painting, I chose one of the first digital paintings I ever completed to re-work. The subject was Azazel, my favorite X-Men Villon.

This original painting (on the left) was done in grey scale using only a round brush. I remember that I sketched it out directly from a movie poster and even though it's very rough and not very detailed it has got the basic features just about right. In my current style I usually use something like this in the early staged of painting and then build a more detailed painting over it. At the time I was quite happy with this painting and I think it still has a certain charm although it screams "UNFINISHED" at me which is another reason why I chose to repaint it.

The painting to the right is my revised painting. I purposely didn't spend a huge amount of time on it, just a couple of hours, about the same as I spent on the original. Once I found a few source photos I decided that I wanted to make the painting a head and shoulders shot like the previous painting, but unlike my first painting it wouldn't be a straight copy of a photo as I try not to just copy photos anymore if I can help it. To work out a pose I decided would take inspiration from my favorite moment featuring Azazel, in this scene he has just killed the entire crew of a Russian ship and for no reason other than his own perverse joy he grabs the captains hat and pops it on his head before heading off to steer the ship at some very miffed American soldiers… Good clean evil fun!

So in my revised painting I decided to have Azazel wearing a captains hat and smiling just slightly, as if he's up to something. I also made the painting slightly sepia in tone like an old photo.

The difference in the two paintings are quite pronounced. My current work is a lot more detailed and has a bit more character to it. I'm getting much more skilled at capturing light, drawing hair and indicating texture… although I think I've probably got a way to go on that particular skill. For all that my style hasn't changed dramatically. The majority of my work is still done with one brush which has a pencil like texture to it, but is still basically a soft round brush. My paintings in their early stages usually look very much like my 2011 painting and are done using 3 shades of grey. The main difference in my technique now is that I build upon the original image, making it more detailed with every pass. In my finishing touches I do often use custom brushes now to give my paintings a little extra texture or detail, however I try to limit the use of custom brushes to the bare minimum, as despite their time saving qualities I find that when I finish a painting using a custom brush I often can't look at it without seeing the obvious signs of whatever brush I've used. Not good!

So, what do you think? I know that if someone had shown me my second painting when I painted the first and said "in 2 years you'll be able to paint this" I would have probably just responded "I wish!". On the other hand, looking at the painting I did recently I can't imagine being able to improve my skills much further. Perhaps I'll have to pick this up again 2015 to see if I really have got as good as I'm going to get, or if I've made another leap to something I never would have imagined myself capable of today! Here's hoping!

If you like my work please like my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration

Claws and Robbers - Commission

I recently undertook a commission for an author, Susan Rae Glass and her new book Claws and Robbers. The brief was to create a illustration to for one of her books characters which would show both the supernatural side of the book and the Police connection, that would be used as part of a pack given away with signed books. This is how I went about it…

After some discussions in the pub (where all the best discussions are held) regarding Susan's ideas and how they could work, I headed home and worked up some very rough ideas in black and white (and in this case blue) so that Susan could decide which was her favorite. I always think this stage, where I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do just looks like scribble or finger painting but apparently Susan saw past that and chose the middle idea.

Once I knew where the painting should be heading I could rough out the background and the main subjects body. I tried a few ideas for this but then I started reading "Claws and Robbers" and it was immediately apparent that the character should in a relaxed but alert pose, instead of crouched.

Once I'm happy with the rough shape of the character I always try to get the head/face right as this will help me develop the character in my mind and give him personality. After that the rest is relatively easy. At this point I was relatively happy with the pose and the head but something wasn't quite right. Later I worked out that the left hand side of the face was too fluffy and the left eye wasn't quite in the right place.

Once I had corrected the problems with the wolfs head I could get down to fur, fur and more fur. Thankfully I managed to go though most of my fur painting learning curve while painting my previous wolf so this time things ran far more smoothly and took half the time. It just goes to show that the adage "practice makes perfect" is alive and well.

One other change I made was to move the wolf to a better position as I needed to keep in mind that I had both a background and a title to add to the painting.

Speaking of backgrounds, here we are! I cannot express how much the thought of painting all those police officers in riot gear filled me full of dread. Particularly as I needed to make it fairly obvious what they were without drawing too much attention away from our wolf. I'm afraid they do somewhat remind me of the scary skeletal spacemen from Dr. Who, spooky!

And here it is, the finished article. I had some fun playing around with the text to give it that finishing touch and I was so happy with the result that a copy is now hanging on my wall.

If you would like to purchase a copy of "Claws and Robbers" you can do so on Amazon at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Claws-Robbers-Susan-Rae-Glass/dp/1481792253/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370989726&sr=8-1&keywords=claws+and+robbers

… or you can follow Susan Rae Glass on Facebook and purchase one of her fantastic signed books directly from her with a "MET" pack which includes a post card sized print of my work at

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Susan-Rae-Glass/554067864616102?fref=ts

… and don’t forget to follow my Facebook page where you will see work in progress shots and news often weeks before it hits my blog.

https://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration

Music in the Night 12x10 Print

Music in the Night 12x10" Print

£20 + p&p

My wolf painting with some finishing touches is now available to purchase as a 12x10" signed limited edition print.

"Music in the Night is professionally printed on high quality sem-gloss poster stock with a 1" white border. Each print will be signed and numbered (out of 50).

To order your copy, please email me at tessa@amatheya.co.uk or visit my Etsy shop. I accept payment by Paypal or personal cheque however please note that payment must clear before your print will be sent.

Please follow me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration

Wolf 8x10

Wolf 8x10

My first painting of the new year is complete and I'm very happy with him.

My wolfy took a little longer to complete than I had anticipated as the gremlins decided to invade my flat again and kill my graphics tablet!!! On the bright side I now have a shiny new one which I've finally got to grips with.

If you would like to pre order a print of this painting please contact me via my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration.

Wolf - Work in Progress

I thought I'd give you all a sneak peak at the new 8x10 print I'm working on.

I've promised myself that this year I will try to finish one print every month so this pretty little chap is my January offering.

This is the first time that I've tried to paint this much fur in such detail and I've hit upon the unexpected snag of writers cramp! I can only manage sittings of about an hour before I have to step away from the computer and give my wrist a rest.

I have to finish my wolfs tummy and legs and put in the finishing touches but I expect to have him complete by the end of the week.

To seem more work in progress photos and news please like my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration.

Happy New Year!

 Christmas Mini Commission

Here we are in January, at the start of a whole new (hopefully excellent) year. I hope all of my visitors had a enjoyable Christmas with lots of food and the odd tipple.

For me the Christmas period was full of highs and lows. The highs were getting lots of lovely art books and a shiny new Spyder (a clever technical thing that improves the colour output on my monitor) sadly this was offset by my last little rescue rodent passing away Christmas nigh.

RIP Peanut My special little boy

He was named peanut due to his tendency to annoy everyone (human or rodent) around him to such an extent that he had to be separated from his brothers for the sake of their sanity. But once he became a only rat he seemed to mellow, he also invented the "yoggie dance" which seemed to involve jumping up and down on his hind legs while doing jazz hands until someone gave him a yoggie... It always worked! He passed away at the grand old age of just over 3 1/2 smashing Reggies record for rodent longevity.

So, what do I have planned for this year? Well I already have a few possible commissions to look forward to and I'm hoping to be a lot busier on that front this year. I am also planning to take part in a lot more craft fairs and produce a lot more limited edition prints. So all in all I'm planning to draw, paint and generally work my little socks off! I also intent to be a lot more fastidious about updating my blog, so I should be posting at least once per week (Or I will have to take myself outside and give myself a good talking to).

Todays picture is of the secret mini commission completed before Christmas. The client wanted a vintage teacup cameo necklace and specified that person it was made for is not a girly girl so no flowers. Instead I used a gold lace motif which was no small feat particularly as my computer decided that it didn't like the first one and chose to crash just as I finished! Modern technology is definitely a double edged sword.

Don't forget that you can now follow me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration