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

Silver tone Burlesque Necklaces on Folksy

Hello all! It’s been a while since I’ve posted due to some unavoidable changes in my routine which but as things are now calming down I’m back and posting again. So let me begin by announcing that my Folksy store now sports these 2 lovely variations on my Burlesque necklace designs, this time in a silver tone. Please click on the images to visit my shop.

More paintings, finished works & jewellery coming soon!

Cherry Blossom - Work In Progress

Yesterdays upload glitch has magically resolved itself so I can finally share with you my current work in progress (well, one of them anyway) It was only a matter of time before a geisha made her way into one of my burlesque paintings, this one started off as a speed doodle but has developed so well that I intend to turn her into a finished piece.

Originally I had no plans to add the cherry blossoms, they were a spur of the moment idea but now I love them so I will be re-drawing them in a little cleaner before finishing the sash and fan.

Don’t forget that I will be at the vintage fair at The Vic in Swindon tomorrow with fantastic artist Jennie Anderson and our Burly Boo stall. Pop along and say hello if you’re in the area.

Pendants

I’ve now completed my first 2 pendants for the vintage fair next month. They were a bit fiddly but I think I’ve got the hang of it now. They are made with glass Cabochons and nickel free vintage style backs.

Peacock – Finished

I’m calling this little lady finished.

Peacock is going to be another print that will be on sale at my local vintage fair in February, details of which can be found here www.thevicswindon.com/get/events.

Peacock – WIP

I haven’t posted for a few days but I have been working hard on my next burlesque painting for the vintage fair next month. I tried a slightly different technique with this one, first creating the line drawing, then roughing it in grey scale and finally applying colour. It’s made it a lot easier to get the effect that I wanted.

I’m nearly happy with the body now and just need to spend some time working on her face and hair. I also need to do something slightly more exciting with the feathers in the background but I haven’t quite decided what yet.

Everything Stops For Tea

A very Happy New Year to everyone! (I’m only running 3 days late)

As you can see from the picture above I’ve been taking a break from my airship WIP to work on something completely different. “Everything Stops for Tea” is the first of several burlesque/vintage inspired painting that I hope to complete by February in time for a vintage fair (More about that at a latter date). As usual this was painted digitally.