News from the Studio

So, I’ve been quite quiet again recently for a very good reason. My poor old laptop, which I have been using for my artwork for the past couple of years, has been slowly grinding to a halt. It was barely usable up until a week or two ago when despite repeated attempts to resuscitate it, it rolled over and refused to do anything more exciting than look at Facebook. On the bright side I am now expecting a shiny new computer with whistles, bells and the spec to actually do what I want… I’m just a little excited :-)

While I remember. Here’s a picture of my stall at the Vic vintage fair earlier this month. It was lots of fun not least because it was being held in a pub! Although I’m afraid my takings may have mostly been spent on tea and cake…

The next event that I will be attending will be the M.E.C.A Craft and Vintage fair in Swindon town centre on the 9 th of December. I’ve been by sellers that were at the Vic that it has a brilliant atmosphere so I’m really looking forward to this one! :-)

Don't forget that if you want to be kept up to date with all my latest news and some sketches that don't make it onto my blog just head across to my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration and click "like" :-)

Technical Difficulties Once Again!

I was hoping to share with you one of my many current work in progress tonight but sadly Blogger says no! My recurring upload problem has… well... reoccurred.

I shall now go and spend several fruitless hours trying to get assistance and answers to my problem which I’m sure will do no good but hopefully my problem will mysteriously disappear again within a few days like last time.

Wishing you all a glitch free weekend!

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.

Technical Difficulties – The Continuing Saga

Well I’m no further on in my quest to banish the technical difficulties from my blog. Now not only can I not post pictures but I also can’t look at my blog details and traffic report. I’ve still not received any response from Blogger but I have had a nice chat with a lovely lady called Ms Ruby who runs Ruby’s Musings (http://ruby-rubymusings.blogspot.com/) a lovely vintage style blog. She is also having issues getting her uploaded photos onto her posts and has been trying to get help to resolve the problem (which in her case is intermittent) since May!!! That doesn’t bode well for my chances.

I will give Blogger a week or so to resolve the problem but if I get no further in that time I’m afraid I will have no choice but to pick up sticks and move to another service. I really don’t want to move as I have connected with some amazing people through the site and it will be a little like leaving a home where I’ve made friends with the neighbours and just finished the decorating but if Blogger won’t let me upload my artwork I can’t see how I can stay.

It’s all very sad and I hope it doesn’t come to that… I’m sure the saga will continue soon!

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.

Technical Difficulties Again

Once again my blog seems to be giving me grief. I am currently unable to load images. The problem has been reported and hopefully it will not take long for the technical bods at Blogger to kick the gremlins out of the system but until then I shall just have to ramble on without all the pretty pictures.

WIP 5

Another couple of hours done on this one and it’s only the small fiddly bits and the background left to do. Today was spent working on jewellery and my little ratty friend who has come out looking very cute even if I do say so myself. I don’t think it will be long now before I’ve finished this one but I’ve got a couple of unproductive evenings coming up (in other words I’m off down the pub!) so I probably won’t get the last bits polished off before the weekend.


Technical difficulties – I’m currently having technical difficulties with my blog. It would seem that I can post to it, but not respond to comments or view it myself! I’m hoping to get this resolved shortly and will reply to all comments as soon as I can.