Alphonse Mucha Practice Sketch

Alphonse Mucha Practice Sketch

Alphonse Mucha is one of the most famous art nouveau artists. Even if you haven't heard of him you will have probably seen his work which is easily recognizable by the elegant art nouveua style, iconic line art and delicate watercolour washes. He's also one of my favorite artists by far and I often practice doing sketches after his work when I'm struggling to think of what to draw.

...So, this year hasn't gone quite to plan yet. At the start of the year I had big plans for doing a lot more artwork. However in January I was informed that I was being made redundant (something that came to pass last week) as a result I have mostly been trying to think of ways to feed myself over the next few months!

Despite this and the ever present need to find a new job I will be trying to pick up my feet over the next few weeks. I have several ideas in the pipeline including several individual paintings, a few projects that I'd like to get finished and a deck of tarot cards. I also hope to spend a lot more time sketching and drawing as I seem to have allowed myself to get side tracked from that recently.

On top of this I'm hoping to redesign my website again using some very complicated looking books on XHTML, CSS and Java that I picked up at the library and open a eBay store.

So, if you'd like to keep up to date on whether I'm being a good girl and drawing instead of watching episodes of Lost and eating cookies, now would be a good time to "like" my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration which is updated regularly with random photos taken from my phone and odd bits of non-blog-worthy news!

Mucha Sketches

Todays post is a couple of quick pencil sketches done from the work of one of my favourite painters Alphonse Mucha. 

Flying Circus WIP 1

It’s a miracle. I’m not sure why but Blogger has decided to allow me to upload photos again so I’ve started a new WIP.

This project is a little different to my usual portraiture. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a circus painting and I wanted to have a play with creating a landscape. Somehow the two ideas collided, mixed with a particularly odd dream and refined themselves while I worked on a very boring spreadsheet. The result is a literal flying circus in convoy on its way to an Emerald City like location (It isn’t supposed to be the Emerald City but that’s what it reminds me of)

This is the very early stages of this painting where the only thing that I am working on is getting my idea down on paper and trying out colour. I need to tweak some of the perspective but otherwise I’m happy with where I’m going.

Happy Rat Speed Painting

This is a little happy rat speed painting I did a couple of days ago when I was feeling extraordinarily happy after spending the day with Professor Elementals “Splendid” stuck in my head.

I only wish that I was quite as happy today!

Despite appearances my image uploading problems are persisting. I’ve had to use Google Chrome which I hate with a passion in order to get this image to upload and even now it has not uploaded properly. For some reason all the colours have been bleached which is very irritating. I feel I may be being paranoid but several web pages I have visited recently have tried to “force” me to use Chrome and I’m wondering if Blogger is going the same way given that it's owned by Google. I have to admit that I’m seriously contemplating a move to Wordpress.

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.

Photoshop Value Study – Jack Sparrow

I’ve been working on another value study in the past week, this time using a photo of Jack Sparrow. I’m really happy with most of the picture and I’m definitely improving. One of the most important things I’ve learnt from this one has been lot to rush, I’ve played with a few other value studies beside this one during July and overall the ones that I’ve worked on in short session and then left for a few hours have come out best.

I’m going to do a few more of these studies in greyscale and then start moving into colour.

Photoshop Value Study - Azazel

Recently I’ve decided that I need to get with the 20th 21st century (I’m only 11 years late!) and learn how to draw and paint using Photoshop.

Previously I have used Photoshop for “colouring in” with my Ratz cards, but creating a piece of artwork from start to finish has always been quite daunting. I could blame my archaic version of Photoshop or my small graphics tablet but in I think I am guilty of being a bit of a technophobe when it comes to laying aside my pencils and brushes and embracing pixels.

Well, they say the best way to beat a fear is to face it (although I’m sure that doesn’t count with spiders, Yuck!) so today with the help of the fantastic tutorials over at http://idrawgirls.blogspot.com/ I began my first ever start to finish Photoshop art project.

I chose to work on a value study as a starting point and in keeping with the sort of artwork done at “I Draw Girls” I chose my favourite character from the new X-Men: First Class movie, Azazel. The idea of this piece was to take a picture (in this case a promotional photo) and recreate it entirely within Photoshop using only shades of grey.

I’m quite happy with how it turned out, I started very basic and found it quite frustrating. I just couldn’t get the shades to go where I wanted them to but as I became more familiar and confident with the brushes and how the shades react together, I started to find the process enjoyable and completely lost track of time. The end result is still very loose and sketchy but as a first attempt for someone who can’t even draw a straight line in Photoshop (Yes, I’m sure there is a tool for that somewhere) I’m very happy with the effort and will definitely be trying this exercise again.

Book Cover Mock-up

So I was trying to decide what to sketch today and came up with an idea for a new cover for the book I’m reading at the moment, “The Historian”. It’s a vampire novel and has a very plane red cover with nothing but the name of the book and the author on it. I figured it would be good practice to make up my own cover.

Early in the book a print of a medieval dragon features quite strongly so I’ve decided to make this the main feature of the cover. This sketch is the dragon I’ve come up with based on the description and a little research on dragons in medieval art. He’s not exactly a carbon copy of a medieval dragon but the shape of the body and wings are similar to most depictions. I need to clean him up and make a ink copy and I also need to do some work on the banner before I scan him and start working in Photoshop.

On the finished cover I will have the dragon outline and the title in red (if it was a real cover I would have this metallic) and the background in black. I haven’t decided yet whether I will stretch my dragon across the back and front or flip him and have him just on the front cover perhaps with some other little detail on the back to add interest.

Priestess

Todays sketch was modified from a photo on the Wet Canvas free image library.

Black Knight Sketch

I feel like I’ve been a bit lazy recently. I’ve started going to the gym again and that has taken up a lot of my time but that is just no excuse. So, in order to rectify this little problem I’ve decided I need to set myself the task of updating my blog once a day again. Whether I can achieve this or not is debatable but the intention is there so we’ll just have to see how I get on with it.

 So, on to todays post. I’ve decided that with all the watercolour work I’ve been doing recently I’ve been ignoring the grass roots of sitting down and sketching so that’s what I’ve done today. I’m rather proud of the result as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before I’m not usually happy with my male figures but this one has turned out quite well. The source photo was taken by a friend and the subject is a member of the Plantagenet Society, when this photo was taken I believe he was taking a moment to glower at the audience. If you live in England I highly recommend getting along to one of their shows (and not just because I’m a member!)

In the next couple of days I’m hoping to have a go working in two mediums I’ve never tried before, ink and acrylic. It is perhaps a lie to say I’ve never worked in ink before as I have always inked my Ratz cartoons (like the one below) using technical pens before scanning into the computer to add colour. What I’m going to do this time is use brush and ink (which I’ve been informed is not the easiest way to use ink) and then experiment with the different effects that can be created using different mediums to colour the resulting image. I may add my experimentation in acrylic into this mix too and re-work the same picture over and over in different styles to see what happens. I’m hoping that I enjoy using acrylics as I love the effects that you can get with oil and acrylic but after a short experiment using oils I decided that I just didn’t enjoy using them not least because the smell made me feel ill and made poor old Peanut the rat sneeze!

Petals in the Rain – WIP 1

The muse has hit me for a new Geisha painting.

Unlike my last Geisha painting which was based heavily upon a photo which I requested permission to use, this idea comes completely from my imagination. I’ve started with a pen sketch to plan out what I want. In my original vision, I was going to have my Geisha on a washy blue grey background but as I added more detail to the sketch a background appeared all by itself… funny how that happens when your not concentrating too hard. So, I’ve decided to use the background but keep the colours in blue greys with perhaps the odd hint of colour, while the Geisha in the fore ground with be in very bright yellows, greens and reds.

This Little Piggy

Right I’m back to the drawing board and looking forward to (hopefully) finishing my Aslan painting at the weekend. In the mean time here’s a little piggy! I’m thinking of re-doing him in watercolour soon.

I also joined the local artist club “Swindon Artist Forum” today. They have a gallery in the centre of Swindon town and all the members I’ve met seem really nice. Who knows maybe I’ll even apply for some space in the gallery myself next year.

Oh! Mr Darcy

Mr Darcy

Graphite on 220gsm Cartridge Paper

(8 1/2" x 5 7/8")

This was going to be yesterdays post but unfortunately my computer decided to have a funny five minutes, it seems to have recovered all by itself though so here we go…

Today’s post is the gorgeous Mr Darcy (Colin Firth). Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books and I love the BBC adaptation. I’m also really happy with this sketch, particularly the nose. I sometimes have issues with noses but this one looks particularly nose like!

Mr Darcy is now on sale on eBay Click Here

Lion Pride ACEO set

Lion Pride ACEO's

Graphite on 220gsm Cartridge Paper

I’ve recently been inspired by Fay Akers to create my first set of ACEO cards. Hope you don’t mind :) I’ve called this set of four “Lion Pride” as it features 4 lions including my favourite one a little baby lion. I’ve never worked this small before so it was a new experience but I really enjoyed it and will definitely be making more ACEO’s in the future.

These are now up for sale on eBay Click Here

Mr Lion

Mr Lion

Pencil on Cartridge Paper

Today’s post is Mr Lion… Why is he Mr Lion? In my view anything with teeth that big deserves every respect!

I can't draw today!

Enchanted

Pencil on Cartridge Paper

Today I decided to draw my friends scruffy little dog but after about an hour I decided that I can’t draw! So instead I did this cheesy doodle from the movie Enchanted.

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon

Pencil Sketch on Cartridge Paper

Today’s daily post is a fantasy sketch of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. I’ve been watching the first season of the BBC series “The Tudors” this week and I recently read the book “The Other Boleyn Girl”. In both of these my favourite character was been Queen Catherine who both in fiction and in historical record is portrayed as a good person who lived a privilege but tragic life full of loss and betrayal… I do have a thing about tragic figures lol

This sketch is inspired by several period paintings of Catherine.

Daily Sketch 31/08/2010

Rudolph the Big Nosed Reindeer

Pencil on Cartridge Paper

Today’s sketch is a big nosed deer… That almost sounds like a breed but unfortunately it’s not. This poor deer has been the victim of a slight miscalculation on my part. Is it too early in the year to call him Rudolph?

Daily Sketch 30/08/2010

Sookie Stackhouse

Pencil on Cartridge Paper

Today’s sketch is Sookie Stackhouse from True Blood. I’m not overly happy with this sketch, there’s a lot about it I’d like to improve but it has made me realise that bigger isn’t necessarily better. I always remember my art teacher at College nagging me to work bigger, after enjoying working in A3 yesterday I thought I would do the same today however I think I would have enjoyed this sketch more if I had been working in A4. I may try this one again tomorrow in A4 to see how it turns out.

Daily Sketch 29/08/2010

Aslan

Pencil on Cartridge Paper

Today’s daily sketch is the first fantasy sketch that I’ve done in a while. This is based on C.S. Lewis Narnia stories, I loved these books when I was a child although as I have grown older I have found it hard to see the books the way I did back then as they have so many hidden meanings that as children you ignore but as an adult you cannot.

Unlike my previous sketched this one is in A3, I thought I’d work larger than normal to make up for the last two days in which I didn’t get around to posting. On Friday I took my mother to Weston-Super-Mare and Ikea and didn’t get home until late in the evening when I had just about enough energy to fall into bed. Then yesterday I found myself nursing a very poorly rat who I was worried wouldn’t pull through but luckily with medicine, yoghurt and a day of being curled up in a blanket on my lap he appears to be pulling through, fingers crossed.