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" :-)

Time for a short news round-up

Hello Peeps!

The past couple of weeks have been a little quiet in the studio (also known as the messy corner of the living room!) due to some rather intense decorating after I decided that all my walls should be white. About 6 coats of paint latter and I’m nearly in a position to put the studio back into working order and get started on a new painting. Watch this space! I’m also working on getting some note cards made from “Make Way for the King” and my burlesque ladies, and I have some rather fantastic limited edition, giclee prints of “Make Way for the King” that I will be putting on sale soon!

In addition to being able to follow me on Blogger, Facebook and Twitter, on Sunday 21^st October you can pop along to the Vintage & Craft fair at the Vic, Old Town, Swindon and keep me company while I man my stall selling prints and other goodies. All donations of cups of tea gratefully received!

Make Way for the King!

I’m finally ready to call this painting finished! It’s been a long work in progress that has required me to paint a lot of things that I’m not familiar or comfortable with but I’m happy with how it has turned out an relieved that I can now take a break from painting armour!!!!

I will be selling prints of this painting in my Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/TessaLake) shortly.

Make Way for the King - WIP 9

So, this is another small work in progress shot. I should probably point out that there are so many because when I’m working on my own work I tend to do it in small sessions, a little bit here and a little bit there, leave it and come back. After all, if I’m not on the clock I can take my time. When I’m working on a commission I move the computer away from the TV and settle down to some serious work!

Another reason I take so many progress shots is that unlike when I work in watercolour I can’t stand back and look at what I’m doing (read get a cuppa and scowl at my painting) so instead I flick through the WIP shots regularly looking at how I’ve progressed and trying to spot areas for improvement.

Anyway, back to today. I’ve been working on the background and Mr knight on the left again. I’m happy with the background now, that isn’t to say it won’t get tweaked again but for now I’m happy. When I scrolled through my WIP shots I decided that lefty looked like he was standing to close behind the king so I’ve pushed him back a bit and given him a sword. I need to do some work on his legs (I need to let them rest as they are for a bit so that I can work our what) but once that is done I think I’ll finally be into the final detail stage! Yay!!!

While lefty rests his legs I will be exercising mine! I’ve recently taken up jogging with the help of a iPhone app that a love called “Zombies, Run!”. It’s a brilliant idea, as you run your music is interspersed with little snippets of story and you also pick up supplies that you can allocate to your little town which unlocks more stories. The further you run the more supplies you pick up. It certainly seems to be motivating me to get off my bottom and run!

If you would like to have a go at running away from Zombies you can learn more about the app at https://www.zombiesrungame.com

Make Way for the King – WIP 8

Well I’ve had a busy old couple of weeks. Unfortunately they haven’t been busy painting! Still, today I finally had 10 minutes to sit down and get some painting done so the kings tabard is all but finished and the knight on the left just needs to be tidied up. For some reason I’m having far more trouble with him than I did the knight on the right.

Once I’ve got him all finished I will tighten up the background an put some more detail in. I haven’t decided whether to put the flag barer back in or leave him out, any thoughts?

Make Way for the King – WIP 6

Today I’ve been trying to address the niggling feeling that there was something fundamentally wrong with the kings pose. I was happy with his body but his head and face just kept niggling at me.

At first I thought that the massive helm was making his head look small so I fleshed him out a little, lifted his chin, gave him a beard and then realised that I’d created a freakish beach ball headed creature that I will not be posting! At this paint, I swore a bit, went to get a cup of tea and generally had a strop for a while before returning to the drawing board with fresh eyes.

The only solution that I could see was to start over. I went through my source photos looking for pictures of the kings helm and neck plate and luckily found a couple lying around that gave me a better idea of the shape and design. I then completely deleted the original head, brought the tabard into his neck and started from scratch. The result is not finished but I’m much happier with him now that he’s far more upright and I can move onto getting some detail into the final knight and banner bearer.

(The little lion in the bottom left corner is a template I created for the rampant lions on the kings tabard… I suppose I shouldn’t leave him there, how messy of me!)

New Etsy Shop!

You can now buy prints, jewellery and cards featuring my artwork on my new Etsy shop! Please take a look and don’t forget to Like my new Facebook page by searching for Tessa Lake Illustration (http://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration) 

Make Way for the King – WIP 5

Well another work in progress shot of my latest painting. Today I’ve been working on the knight to the right of the king. From now on I shall call him Neville (for no particular reason, he just looks like a Neville) He’s come out quite well I think. I’ve tried to keep him a little darker and less detailed than the king so that he stays in the background and I think that’s worked. I’ve also put some more detail into the background, this won’t be the finished detail bit it helps me to see where I’m going and how things relate to each other.

Next I will be working on the knight and the flag barer to the left, then I’ll be going back to working on the king who still needs a lot of work.

One of the things that I love about digital painting is keeping progress shots. Before I write up any WIP entry for my blog I call up all my progress shots and pan through them start to finish. I do this a few times just so I can see how far I’ve come. Sometimes when I look back over the WIP shots I find elements that I’ve removed or changed that I realise I should put back in, or I get new ideas for tweaks. Other times like today I see what the element I’ve been working on looked like before I started the session and then what it looks like after the session and I think to myself “did I draw that?!”… That’s a good feeling.

Make Way for the King – WIP 4

I only have a small update today because I’ve taken the evening off to watch the Olympic opening ceremony. Go team GB! I’m being slightly hypocritical as I intend to spend the next couple of weeks not watching the Olympics, but I still hope my countries team does well.

Anyway, back to painting. I’ve started putting the loose colour onto the background and re-positioning the knights. Tomorrow I hope to finish colouring these and getting this painting as close to finished as possible… I may even get it completely finished, you never know!

Finally, a quick should out to the fabulous aerial acrobat Ted Silkstrom who took part in the Olympic show tonight. Well done!!

Make Way for the King – WIP 3

So, tonight I mostly worked on the kings armour, which I hate just a little bit less now I’ve got the hang of it.

Now that I’ve got all of the kings base colour down I’m going to move on to blocking in the background. I’m not entirely sure that I’m going to stay with the same rough outlines I’ve shaded in yet so I might paint each of his knights on a different layer to make it easier to tweak them if needs be.

Thanks to the guys who follow me on Facebook for reassuring me that the shadowed face should stay. If you would like to follow me on Facebook you can do so here http://www.facebook.com/TessaLakeillustration or search for me under “Tessa Lake Illustration”

Make Way for the King – WIP 2

So I’ve started adding colour to this painting tonight and I’ve already discovered that I hate painting armour almost as much as I hate painting hair… Good thing I’m not working on a painting with lots of armour clad knights then isn’t it?!

So far I like the way this is going. I’ve slightly altered the frame and face of the king from my greyscale under-painting and tweaked a few things slightly. Once I’ve got all of the base colour down I’ll probably tweak it a lot more. I’m not sure whether to change the shadow on the kings face so that you can see his eyes… In the photo his eyes are completely in shadow and although I’m not sticking rigidly to the source material I do like the contrast but in my painting I’m not so sure. I guess I’ll see how it goes.

Make Way for the King WIP

Well, several weeks have passed since I went on a lovely holiday down in Devon and I have finally started drawing again. This painting which is in the shading phase was inspired by Tewkesbury Medieval Festival and is loosely based on a photo taken by my friend Jennie Anderson (visit her website at http://www.jennieanderson.co.uk/).

I’m reasonable happy with the king but I may tweak the soldiers in the background a little. Next stop, coloursville!

Mucha Sketches

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

Ernie the Singing Vulcher

Say hello to Ernie, he’s a vulcher who loves to sing. Despite protests from his dwindling number of friends, Ernie has insisted on singing whenever possible from an early age. Ernie’s deepest desire is to have vulchers as recognised for their remarkable singing skills as larks and to win X-Factor… Ernies friends and companions deepest desire is that one day soon Ernie will realise that he is tone deaf and take up a more vulcherly pastime such as scrapbooking or cataloguing rotting entrails.

Larten Crepsley

Todays post is a little bit of fan art I’ve been working on.

For those of you who haven’t seen “The Vampires Assistant” Larten Crepsley is one of the main characters in the vampire world created by Darren Shan. He’s also my all time favourite vampire :-)