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

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

Exodus – Roller Derby Decal Commission

I was absolutely over the moon a couple of weeks ago, when after finishing Ratty Babes roller derby decal, I was approached by one of her team mates who wanted one of her own.

Unlike Ratty Babe who was happy for me to head off and doodle something I though would work, Exodus knew exactly what she wanted and I don’t mind saying that after reading the description, I had a moment where I simply started at the paper and wondered how I was ever going to fit everything in.

Luckily after several cups of tea and some scribbles in a writing pad (Why is it always easier to layout a design when you’re scribbling in the margin of a ruled pad?) I had a fair idea of how to do it.

I like to get my cartoon style illustrations down on paper before inking and colouring digitally, so I used my handy circle template (a old side plate) to set the boundaries of the decal and set about work out the design. The hardest part was the waves to either side. I wasn’t entirely sure how those were going to work until I inked in the lines, but once I picked out the shapes and removed the inner wall of the white border I loved the silhouette they made.

The colouring of the decal was probably the easiest part if you don’t count the row I had with Photoshop over which colour green I wanted to use. (You may have won this battle Photoshop, but the war is far from over!)

Roller Derby Decal Commission

 

 

After a slow few weeks I’ve been back at my drawing tablet in the last few days to complete a commission that has been lots of fun! The brief required me to create a T-Shirt / Helmet decal for a roller derby girl to fit with the name “Ratty Babe”. The client had a rough idea of what she wanted but having chatted about it a little she was happy to let me go off and do what I thought would work best. Luckily when I came back with the rough sketch for the image above, she was more than happy.

Personally, I just love the “cheese and cross bones” on the socks!

WIP2 Church Colouring Christmas Card

I’ve finished the full layout for this Christmas card now. The front hasn’t changed much although I have made the gift in the centre bigger.

The inside now has the baby in the correct place.

I’ve printed a couple of test sheets off and the design works rather well even if I do say so myself. It should be signed off by the client by the end of the week and I’ll make any other minor adjustments then.

WIP Church Colouring Christmas Card

This is the first draft of a colouring sheet Christmas card for a local church. The idea is that the cards will be cut so that the gift in the middle will lift up revealing baby Jesus in a manger. It’s quite strange for me to be working on religious imagery but it’s a nice feeling to know that kids will be having fun colouring in my artwork.

Finished artwork to follow once the sketch has been approved.

Christening Colouring Sheet

Last week I found myself working on a rush job for a local church. The client was putting together a pack for the children who would be at a Christening and asked me if I would be able to draw her a colouring sheet for the pack.

Simple? You’d think so but the problem is that she needed it within the hour, so no time to go home and collect supplies. I had to make do with a blunt pencil and some printer paper!

Despite these trials the client who had asked for a picture of a young boy walking away from an alter with footprints walking beside him, was very happy with the resulting sketch.

The above image was scanned from one of the photocopies and very slightly tweaked.