Busy!

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

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

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!

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

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

Update #4: Emerald work in progress

13.75 hrs

Update #3 - Emerald work in progress

Update #2: Emerald

Happy New Year!

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.