Walter - Stage 4

Walter

Work in Progress

5x7 Coloured Pencil

I'm getting really close to being done! I'll leave it for a few days and go back to it with fresh eyes. That way I'll be able to see any problem areas that I don't notice after staring at it for hours!

Walter - Stage 3

Walter

5x7

Coloured Pencil

Work in Progress

2010

 Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I thought I'd start this post off with some pictures!

These are my "kids".

This was the view from our house today.

It's a bit dreary looking but I liked the pattern of ice melting on the river.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I spent a week with my family in Moncton and it was really great seeing everyone, especially my sister and brother-in-law who live in Shanghai. They have been living there for about 4 years now and oddly enough, I see them more now than when they lived in Toronto!

If you've been following my posts (and it's ok if you haven't!), you'll know that I had back surgery on Dec. 9. The surgery came non-too-soon because the week before, I injured it further and was hospitalized for pain control for two days. Up until that point, I had actually been feeling pretty good, and although I still wanted the surgery, I had some doubts as to whether or not I still needed it. Turns out I did! It's now been almost 4 weeks since the surgery and I'm doing really well! I'm so glad I had it done and I look forward to getting my life back to normal again because I've been out of commission for so long. I am still a little bit sore and my back gets tired easily so I'll be off work for a while longer. I also have some residual leg and foot numbness, which I'm told will eventually go away. But by the spring/summer, I should be as good as new!

Being the new year, I feel like I should make some resolutions. I'm not normally one for doing this, but since everyone else seems to be doing it, maybe I should too! Here is what I would like to accomplish in the new year:

• 
  
  Update my blog more often
  
• 
  
  Sell some original artwork
  
• 
  
  Try oil painting again and actually finish at least one piece!
  
• 
  
  Spend more time on my artwork
  
• 
  
  Get into better shape. I haven't been able to do anything because of my back so once I'm better, I'll have no excuse!
  
• 
  
  Get a dog. I'm on a waiting list for an Australian Shepherd puppy!
  
• 
  
  Read more
  
• 
  
  Become more outdoorsy - given where I live now, I'm sure that shouldn't be a problem!
  
• 
  
  Live life!
  

I'm sure there are lots of other things that I could list here, but I can't think of them at the moment. Good luck to the rest of you in keeping your resolutions!

And lastly, I would like to post my most recent commission. This is Walter and he belongs to my cousin and her husband, commissioned by her parents (my aunt and uncle). Walter is still a puppy and is awefully cute!

 Walter - Reference Photo

Stage 1

Stage 2

"Walter"

Work in Progress

5 x 7

Coloured Pencil

Thank you for reading!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish all of my followers a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 and a 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thank you all for following my blog.

I appreciate the fact that so many people are interested in what I have to say, even though my posts are few and far between!

Once again, this will be a very short post as nothing really has been happening in my studio. Everything is pretty much on hold at the moment because I had my back surgery last Wednesday.

So right now I'm pretty limited in what I can do and I think it will be a while before I can sit at my desk chair and draw.

So my Cape Cod Rocks drawing and my Christmas commission will unfortunately be collecting dust for a few weeks!

Luckily, my client is very understanding about my situation so I feel no pressure there.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

~Heather~

Two bits of news

This picture really has nothing to do with my news...I just thought I'd add a picture of our cat, Loki, for your viewing pleasure!

My first bit of news is that I have a new commission. Unfortunately, I can't tell you about it because it's a Christmas gift and I don't want to spill the beans! It's unlikely that the recipient will see this, but just to be safe, I'm not going to talk about it until it's done. This is actually my first commission since I started doing pet portraits again, so it's quite exciting! So my drawing of the Cape Cod Rocks will be put on hold until I get this done.

My other piece of news is that my back surgery will be on Dec. 9. It's quite a bit sooner than I was originally told, but I'm glad to be getting it overwith. I'll be off work for 6-8 weeks probably and I hope to be up and about after about a week or two. I'll be going to Moncton for Christmas, so hopefully I'll be ok by then. This could affect when I'm actually able to get my commission done, but the client is aware and very understanding.

While I'm off work, I hope to be well enough to sit at my desk so I can get lots of drawing done...so watch this space! I'll keep you posted on how things are going.

Cape Cod Rocks - Stage 2

I've managed to do a little more work on this drawing. It's going to take me quite a while to finish it because as it turns out, rocks are very time-consuming!

Cape Cod Rocks

Work in Progress

8x10

Coloured Pencil

Stuff

After a several month dry spell with virtually no inquiries, orders or sales of prints/cards, etc, I've had a pretty busy week. I've had two requests to donate items for silent auctions. One of the auctions is in Maryland, US for a Lab Rescue group and I donated a set of greeting cards and a print of my Chocolate Lab drawing, Ghira.

In addition to the prints and cards, I donated a $100 gift certificate to be used towards a custom pet portrait. The second auction will be held here in Fredericton for a group who is raising money to help a friend in need. I gave them a $100 gift certificate as well for their auction. So hopefully this will drum up some business for me and at the same time, help raise money for some great causes!

And while I was busy getting things ready to be sent out for these auctions, I received a large order request from the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club of Queensland, Australia. They are having a show in Dec. and placed an order for 25 prints and a few notecard sets of my Staffie drawing, George, to be used as prizes. So I'm in the process of getting that ready to be sent out this week. Quite exciting!

So things seem to be picking up a bit and hopefully will continue. It's gotten me motivated to get back into drawing again, now that my studio is set up in the new house. I've also been thinking about what theme I should choose for my drawings, that would be popular for prints and cards. At the moment, I'm just trying a bunch of different things, but perhaps I should be more focused. I'm toying with the idea of doing a series of dog breeds, because these are the ones that seem to sell the best from my collection. Or maybe I should do horses...or puppies and kittens...I can't decide! I would be interested to hear what my readers have to say, so I am open to comments. And for the artists, in your experience, what subjects are most popular?

All Moved In

It's been almost 3 weeks since we've been in our new house and we absolutely LOVE it!! It's exceeded our expectations and we're so happy here! Most of the place is set up and organized except for the exercise room, the garage and the studio so I haven't done any artwork yet. I thought I would post some pictures so you can see why I love it so much! The following is our house and property.

 

 

Rocks

I decided to try something different this time, which means I may have to change the title of my website yet again!! "Pet Portrait and Animal artist" doesn't cover rocks! And since I'm really enjoying drawing something other than fur, I may just do more of this type of drawing.

I still feel like I'm trying to find my niche in terms of my artwork. My forte is definitely pencil, but I still enjoy trying other materials and subjects. But for now I'm enjoying experimenting! For quite a while I've been wanting to draw a pile of something like rocks, pencils, marbles, whatever...! Monotony works for me when it comes to my artwork (to an extent)!

I often feel inspired by the work of other artists, and lately I've really been admiring the work of April Jarocka, who's blog I follow. She does amazing paintings of beach rocks (among other things)...check out her blog! After watching many of her paintings unfold, I decided that I wanted to try my own rock drawing. I love all the colours that are found in beach rocks and I wanted to capture that in my own drawing.

So here is stage one of my drawing that I'm calling "Cape Cod Rocks" for now. I took the reference photo myself on a beach in Menauhant, Cape Cod this summer, while staying at a friend's cottage.

``Cape Cod Rocks``

8x10

Coloured Pencil

Work in Progress

On another note, I'm probably going to be away from my drawing desk for the next little while. We're in the process of moving to a house in Mactaquac, NB, which is on a beautiful piece of waterfront property. We've been waiting to move for over a month now but as of last week, we officially sold our current house and officially bought our new one! We move on October 13th and we're so excited!! It's a little further outside of Fredericton than we are now so it will take me 30 min to get to work (I know, that's nothing for you big city folk!). I don't have any good pictures of the new house yet, but here are a couple from our new front yard, taken from the deck.

And one last piece of news...I will be having back surgery sometime during the winter. If you've read some of my past posts, I mentioned that I've been having back problems due to a herniated disc. After meeting with my surgeon, we decided that surgery is the way to go so I can get my life back to normal. I don't know the date yet, but I'm hoping I'll be able to stay home during the really bad weather this year! I'll probably be off work for almost 2 months. So during that time, once I'm feeling better, I hope I'll be able to spend some time on my artwork. But I guess I'll have to see how I feel then.

I know moving won't be great for my back, but we've hired movers to lug all the boxes, I'll just have to help pack. Normal, day to day stuff isn't really that bad on my back. It's when I have to bend and move around a lot that I start to get sore. I'm trying hard to use my legs a lot instead of bending, but I know I'm still going to get sore while we move. I'll just have to be really careful!

Well I guess that's my news for now. I'll try and post something again soon, but I can't guarantee it!!