Heather Page Studios

My newly designed website!

2008-06-29T11:29:00.002-03:00

Well my new website just went online this morning and I invite you all the check it out! Like I said in my last post, I wanted a site that was geared more towards my portfolio and less about commissioning pet portraits.

So pease have a look at http://www.pagesportraits.com and let me know what you think. Under the contact information, there are links to sign my guestbook and also to email me. If you have any comments, I'd love to hear from you. And if you see anything that doesn't quite look right, or links that don't work, please let me know so I can fix them.

Thanks for looking!

A New Look!

2008-06-17T14:36:00.004-03:00

As you may have noticed, the look of my blog has changed, along with its title. I am also in the process of redesigning my website, which will also have the title "Heather Page Studios". Because of my decision to move away from doing pet portraits, I felt that my website and blog both needed facelifts. Since I am no longer focusing on commission work, I want a website that is more of a portfolio of my work and one that isn't limited to pet portraits.

My new website, which I am quite excited about, will be a place for me to display all of my work, whether it's pet portraits, wildlife, landscapes - drawings, paintings, or photography. I will eventually have a section where I will display original artwork which will be for sale, and I will be working on increasing my selection of greeting cards and prints.

I will be using the same domain name for my newly designed website (http://www.pagesportraits.com/) since I have a fair bit of daily traffic to both my website and blog and I don't want to lose that. I will let you all know when my new website goes online!

Delphine WIP

2008-06-06T21:30:00.002-03:00

Here is my second update on Delphine's portrait. As you can see, the quality is much better than my last WIP (work in progress) of her. The first one was taken with a camera and this one was scanned on my scanner. You may notice a slight line through the middle of the drawing - that's because I had to stitch two scans together because my scanner isn't large enough. And once again, I've forgotten to record my time spent on the drawing!

Busy!

2008-05-23T12:29:00.004-03:00

My apologies for not posting in a while! Life has been very busy lately and I haven't had much time to update my blog. I just wanted to let you know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, and I'm doing my best to get all of my commissions done in a timely fashion.

I will be posting another update of Delphine very soon, I just haven't had a chance to get a good picture of the drawing yet. It's coming along very nicely, if I do say so myself!

So what's been keeping me so busy lately? Well, in April we went on a Mediterranean cruise. We boarded in Rome and visited Italy, Spain, Palma de Mallorca, Tunisia, Malta and Sicily. Unfortunately British Airways lost our baggage (four of us were travelling together and we all lost our baggage!), and we didn't receive it until the second last day of the cruise! It made for a pretty stressful trip actually, but we tried to make the most of it. So since we've been back, we've been putting in claims to the airway company and our insurance, and hopefully they'll reimburse us for at least part of what we had to spend!

Other than that, I've been doing a lot of yard work and getting our garden set up. This is our second summer in our house and last year we were pretty slack at making the yard look nice. So this year we decided we would fix it up. At least yard work is still a bit of a novelty, so I actually kind of enjoy it!

I'll be playing women's soccer again this summer as well, with about 3 games a week, so I expect the summer to be quite busy as well. For this reason, I am quite happy with my decision to stop taking on new pet portrait commissions. Once I finish up the ones on my waiting list, I hope to have time to work on my own artwork. It's been a long time since I've been able to do this and I'm really looking forward to it!

Green Nexxus

2008-04-03T15:03:00.003-03:00

Hi everyone! I would like to invite you to join a website called Green Nexxus. My boyfriend, Paul, and his partners have created this environmentally friendly website and it is officially backed by Al Gore (they will actually be meeting him this weekend when they officially launch the site).

Basically this site is like a Facebook for environmentally conscious people, where you can discuss green topics, join groups, etc. I am asking everyone to please sign up and join this site. It doesn't cost anything to join and participate. There is an option to buy a membership to get tons of savings when you buy energy efficient products, but you don't have to pay anything if you don't want to...you can still use the site to its full potential.

So please join and spread the word to all of your friends. We want to get as many new users as possible. Thanks!

www.greennexxus.com

Heather

Delphine - Work in Progress

2008-03-29T21:03:00.004-03:00

This is Delphine, a long haired Daschund. She is being drawn on 11x17 white paper (although it looks pretty orange here) in pencil.

Emerald is finished!

2008-03-18T20:36:00.002-03:00

This is the final scan of Emerald, a Hanoverian/Thoroughbred cross. It is the largest portrait I've worked on so far at 14x17 inches, and it took me about 25-30 hrs to complete. It was drawn in coloured pencil (Prismacolors and a few Derwent Colorsofts). The smaller foal is Emerald as a baby.

Next is Delphine, a long-haired Daschund, which I have already started.

Commissions

2008-03-06T18:47:00.003-04:00

I want to inform everyone that until further notice, I will not be taking on any new commissions. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. For those people on my waiting list, do not be concerned, your portraits will still be done. I just won't be taking on any more for a while after they are finished.

I've been wanting to work on my own artwork for quite some time now, but I just haven't had the time. I really love doing pet portraits for people, and I will eventually get back to it, I just need a bit of a break. There are so many things that I want to do with my artwork, but I just haven't had the chance since I've been doing commissions.

I apologize to those of you who were considering having me do your pet's portrait. If you would really like to have a pet portrait done, I can certainly recommend several, wonderful pet portrait artists.

Please continue to check my website and blog, as I will continue to update them with my new work. If you would like me to inform you when I do start accepting commissions again, please send me your email address.

Thanks for your understanding!
Heather

Update#5: Emerald - Work in progress

2008-02-19T21:10:00.000-04:00

Update #4: Emerald work in progress

2008-01-27T16:50:00.001-04:00

13.75 hrs

Update #3 - Emerald work in progress

2008-01-21T21:59:00.000-04:00

Update #2: Emerald

2008-01-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T13:26:00.001-04:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a very happy new year. I spent Christmas in Moncton with family and friends and we had a very white Christmas. So far this winter, I believe we've had about 5 or 6 snow storms, which is very unusual for this time of year. At the moment, I'm snowed in and was unable to go to work today because the roads aren't plowed yet.

Well now that the new year has begun, I'm back to my drawing after a short Christmas break. I have started Emerald's portrait which I am posting below. I'm doing a montage which shows her as an adult (large head and neck) and a smaller version of her as a foal. It is being drawn in coloured pencil on 14x17 paper.

Because I am working from two separate photos, I did a mock-up on the computer to show the client what the final portrait will look like. So the first image is the mock-up and the second is the first stage of the drawing.

Finished Whisky

2007-12-19T21:33:00.001-04:00

Well I've finally finished Whisky's portrait. Here is the final image, along with the rest of the set: The original lion painting that the owner wanted me to model the portraits after, Bosco and Whisky.

Lion portrait (not by me):

Bosco 2006:

Whisky 2007:

Bosco in frame beside Whisky:

Whisky's portrait finished?

2007-12-16T15:57:00.000-04:00

Just waiting to hear back from the owner to say whether or not this is finished.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-08T15:08:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to write and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! It's been a very busy year this year and I wanted to thank everyone for their support, especially those who have commissioned me to do their pet portraits.

So to update you, I'm still working on Whisky's portrait. It's taking me a little longer than expected as it's giving me some grief. There is a reason why I have chosen to work only on velour paper from now on for my pastel drawings, and Whisky's portrait is on bristol paper. I have no doubt I'll eventually get it right, but it's just taking a bit of time to get there.

I have started the outline of Emerald's portrait, which I will post soon. Emerald is a beautiful horse from Vancouver and I'll be doing a montage, showing her as an adult and as a foal. I'm really looking forward to working on this one because it is my first horse commission. I love horses and drew them all the time growing up, so I'm excited to be doing a drawing of one for someone else.

Third in line on my list is Delfine, a long haired Daschund, which I will be doing in pencil. The owner saw me at my booth at the Pet Expo in Sept. I'm really glad that I was able to get at least one commission from that (it's looking like I might have another soon). Going to trade shows like that costs money, and I'm glad it ended up being worth my while. I had been considering not doing it again next year, but now I think I will.

So I guess that's about it for the updates for now. I will post again soon.

Merry Christmas!

Rest in Peace, Norton

2007-11-25T11:30:00.000-04:00

This is a small tribute to Norton who was owned by my friends, Jen and Victor. Norton passed away this morning from an illness. He was deeply loved and will be deeply missed.

Seven

2007-11-24T01:16:00.000-04:00

This is my kitten, Seven. She's about 6 months old in the photo I think. I drew her for my boyfriend's birthday back in Oct. and have only gotten around to posting it now. She was drawn in pencil on 8x10 white paper.

Whisky

2007-11-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

Here is a pastel portrait of Whisky. I'm not sure how many hours I've put in so far, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot! I still have more work to do on the cat itself and I have to finish the background. I hope to have it finished in the next few weeks.

Whisky is done in soft pastels (Nupastels, Derwents, Yarka and General's) on approx. 9x20 brown bristol paper.

Whisky is owned by the same people who own Bosco. I did Bosco's portrait for them a couple of years ago, and Whisky's will be done in the same style.

Whisky

2007-11-15T12:50:00.000-04:00

Well it's been a little while since I last posted, so I thought I'd better give you an update on what's happening. I have been working on Whisky's portrait for over a month now, but since it's an awkward size (9x20), it's a little difficult to fit on my scanner. I've been meaning to take a photograph of it to show you what I have done so far, but since it gets dark so early, it's hard to get a good, clear shot.

I'm definitely more than half done Whisky's portrait. I just have a bit more touching up to do, and I have to figure out how I'm going to do the background. It's been giving me a bit of grief, but I'm sure I'll get it worked out soon. I'm not big on backgrounds, so I often have to play around a bit.

Soon I will be starting Emerald's portrait, and I have a few of my own projects on the go as well. So hopefully I'll have something new to post soon.

Dancing Dog

2007-11-10T12:05:00.001-04:00

This video is amazing!! Have a look!

Pet Expo

2007-10-02T20:12:00.000-03:00

This past weekend I had a booth at the Pet Expo at the Frex, which was a tradeshow for everything to do with pets. I was there from Friday evening to Sunday at suppertime. It was quite a long weekend, but I had a really great time and met lots of people, dogs and cats. I sold some greeting cards and prints, and I handed out tons of business cards. I spoke with a few people who really seemed interested in having a pet portrait done, so hopefully I'll get some business from it. Here is a picture of my friend, Jen and I at my booth.

Pet Expo 2007

2007-09-26T22:17:00.001-03:00

This weekend from Friday evening until Sunday at 5pm, I will have a booth at the Pet Expo in Fredericton. It is an SPCA fundraiser and last year it brought in 3000 people. I expect it will be quite a busy weekend for me, but I'm really looking forward to it. I've been preparing for it for a little while now, getting greeting cards and prints ready to sell, making up signs, and framing my prints for display.

I expect the expo will include anything and everything pet-related. Plus there will be an NBSPCA auction and agility trials and/or flyball if I read correctly. It should be a good time, so if you're wandering around, be sure to stop by and say hi.

Finished Jessie, Bart and Cooper

2007-09-19T17:24:00.000-03:00

After 29 hrs of drawing I'm finally done. I had originally estimated that it would take me 30 hrs, so I guess I was pretty close. I'm really happy with how this one turned out and so is the client. It's always a relief to hear that the owner is happy and doesn't want any changes! This isn't the final scan and it's missing my signature, but it is finished. I plan on having it scanned tomorrow and then I can hand it over to the owner.

Next on my plate is a pastel portrait of a cat named Whisky. Whisky's portrait will be done in the same style as Bosco (both cats come from the same household).

After that, I finally get to do a horse portrait of a beautiful horse named Emerald. Emerald's portrait will be a 14x17 montage, meaning that there will be a large portrait of her head and neck as an adult and a smaller version of her as a baby. This will be done in coloured pencil.

I also have been approached by a photographer here in Fredericton to do a wolf drawing, potentially for a wildlife calendar, so I will be working on that soon too. I will keep you up to date on what, if anything comes of that.

25 hrs

2007-09-12T22:28:00.001-03:00

I'm getting really close to being done this drawing. All I have left to do is a bit of shading on the ground and touch up a few things. I guess my estimate of 30 hrs was pretty close!