Blue Haired Girl

The past couple of weeks have been a blur. Kyle and I picked up a puppy on July 6th and our lives have been forever changed. With a hiatus from working planned perfectly for the arrival of our furry baby, I had grandiose dreams of lots of blogging and painting. However, I didn't realize the magnitude of lack of sleep from having an 8 week old puppy come home with us. Despite the bags under my eyes, we are so very smitten with our pup and I will be happy to share a post about him in a couple of days.

Now that we are in the rhythm of puppy rearing I got a chance to work on some stuff and get it up on the blog.

This blue haired girl is a play on a creative series I did a few years ago. You can see similar style in this album cover illustration for Holly Finley and this starry night watercolor illustration.  For this illustration/painting I started with a watercolor piece that I scanned and then enhanced digitally using photoshop. It's always fun for me to bring a rather subdued watercolor to life with a little digital love. You can see the original base painting under the final piece below.

Below is the painting before being digitally enhanced in Photoshop. My goal was to heighten the mood of the painting by increasing the contrast and texture; making it a bit more nitty gritty.

Pink Summer Peonies

I broke out the watercolors this weekend in an attempt to capture the pink petaled beauties stuck in my mind. It is peony season here and here in Santa Barbara the farmers markets and store displays are filled with the feathery petaled blooms in pink and blush and white and burgundy.

According to the all knowing Wikipedia, I have gathered some interesting facts on peonies for your next trivia night:

• Peonies are native to Asia, Southern Europe and Western North America.
• The peony is among the longest-used flowers in Eastern culture.
• The peony is named after Paeon, a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing.
• In 1957, the peony was voted as the state flower of Indiana, and still is today.

Now that your brains are filled with facts, I will fill them with pretty colors to dull the throbbing.

My first play was a loose and bright swash of paint to allude to soft and delicately, layered petals of the peony.

Round two was slightly more detailed - with a desire to both let the paint do its thing while also capturing the feathering look of the peony petals. 

It's been a while since I painted - primarily because my paints and brushes were tucked away in storage, but it feels good to paint, and I plan on leave the kitchen table a mess for some time. I am working on a quick study for another painting, larger painting I hope to get to soon. I'll keep you guys posted on that one. 

Floral Friday Watercolor

Santa Barbara weather can get a little gloomy this time of year. I know it's probably a little counter intuitive for sun-shiny California to get gloomy in the beginning of June - but it happens. To us locals we like to refer to the phenomena as June Gloom. And I can assure you - it's gloomy. Foggy, overcast skies hug the coast and bring with them a high level of sad faced days (at least on my end). To alleviate the depression, many locals know that the trick is to head to the Santa Ynez Valley for some wine tasting or (supppper top secret) river floating at the Santa Ynez River. In fact, a group of my pals headed that way to day for just that reason (and to celebrate my dear friend Tessa's birthday). I couldn't make it and as such, I decided to lift my spirits with a good round of afternoon exercise and a cheerful little watercolor post for everyone. 

On that note, here's to a sun shiny weekend to all of my friends! Xoxo - Jennie

For interesting design, illustration and web marketing posts - visit me on Twitter @jenniejacobs

Monster Mash

Last weekend I took the time to play with my watercolors a bit. A joy of mine that I can never seem to actually do these days. I like to blame it on my lack of workshop space because the  taking-out or packing up of paints and supplies really makes the act of creating not as fun. And as such, I get workshop envy. My friend and artist Lalove Benedict has the perfect little work space in which she can spread her painterly goods from tables to wall to easel in one swoop and never has to clean it up (except, of course, when we came to visit and slept in said workroom).

Despite the hassle of cleaning, I took my paints out and played. And, in the end it was well worth it:
 I had fun creating some silly little monster friends, a theme of which I was developing for a custom painting for friends' baby (post to come). Below is the end result:

Big Things

Here's to big things in 2012! Cheers!

Watercolor Women

Slightly forlorn and a bit mysterious, this series of Watercolor Women illustrations was a fun process. Just like my Fall watercolor illustrations, the process begun with painted watercolor that I scanned. From there the watercolor backgrounds were transformed digitally in Photoshop adding texture and layered up for a richer color. The women have a slight Picasso-esque feel, but it wasn't intentional; the first illustration (the green girl) was the gateway for the other two, I just ran with the style. I had fun playing with interesting orientations and flowing hair. Overall, it was a fun project done solely for the pleasure of trying something new. I would love to know your thoughts!

Spook

Fall is Here!

My closest friends and family know that I am a summer weather girl to the core. I love running around in summer dresses, flip flops and keeping my curly hair in a dry, un-frizzy state. But what they also know is my pure, unadulterated love of Halloween. And actually, anyone who has ever read my blog can witness that love with my digital illustrations, custom Halloween cards, my ode to candy corn, and my Halloween paper collages just to name a few.

 As the weather changes, and Kyle and I get ready for our first road trip up to Oregon, I couldn't help but play with some digital illustrations in the name of fall and the Halloween spirit. These illustrations started with actual watercolor scans and I played with them in Photoshop before pulling them into Illustrator for the vectored white drawings. I hope to pursue some more of these in my free time. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I am doing for work that I forget my passion for art and creation.

 Close up detail:

Close up detail:

Falling in Love

More wedding designing to share with my followers! My BFF Sonja and her wonderful hubby AJ tied the knot at the beginning of the month. Their wedding was beautiful and decadent and fun and romantic.

As a gift for this great couple I offered to do their entire wedding suite. Sonja knew from the start that she wanted to embrace a fall color palette and play around with fall leaves. I actually blogged months ago about the watercolors I was doing in prep for the invites here. Overall Sonja and AJ were the ideal clients. They knew what they wanted in terms of design direction and they (pay attention here people) trusted me as a professional to do what I do best; design! (Love them for that).

The result was a beautiful suite that represented them and their special day. Detail below:

Hand painted watercolor was digitally manipulated to create a plethora of falling leaves.

Translucent vellum was tied over the fiber laden, natural color, cardstock for the invites. (AJ had tied all of the invites together by hand, hows that for a pro-active husband ladies?!)

The entire suite consisted of front and back printed save the dates, vellum and cardstock invitations tied with fall colored raffia, folded RSVPs and thanks you's consisting of the single falling heart leaf from the Save the Date.

Inexpensive and rustic feeling kraft envelopes were the perfect package to deliver to the invitees.

I love you.

Inside My Dream

A friend near and dear to my heart, the lovely and wondrous Holly Finley, has been making music magic for as long as I can remember. In high school we would sit cross legged on the floor of her bedroom, a group of three or four of us, and sing ridiculous songs ranging from reggae to punk while Holly played her guitar. Often we would record these spontaneous bursts of fun onto cassette tapes to replay for our amusement at later dates.
After high school we all went off to college each in our own little educational direction. Without a second thought Holly started taking song writing and music history and guitar and cello and any music class she could absorb. She became involved with choirs in the area and started performing in town and around the world.
After years of dedication and hard work Holly has officially announced the release of her debut album EP; Inside My Dream. The title of the album lends itself so fittingly to the sounds within; melodic and dreamy vocals paired with personal and metaphorical lyrics, the exact things dreams are made of.
I myself have been a great supporter of all things Holly Finely since long before her musical debut. She is a wonderful and warm person with exceptional talents. As a long time friend I offered to make the album artwork for Holly and, in her true trustworthy style, she let me do what I wanted. The result is album art that speaks as true to Holly's title as her music.

So please, check out Holly Finley's Inside My Dream available on CDBaby and iTunes, follow her on Facebook and give a budding artist the chance to shine like she deserves.

Falling For You

I am in the process of creating the stationery suite for my BFF's wedding. It is a pleasure to do this for her and her wonderful fiancé and I can't wait to get the "Save the Dates" finished and ready for her proofing. Her fall wedding lends itself perfectly toward the colors and shapes of the season and so we are playing with the fun idea of fall leaves. Here are a few of the leaves that will be used throughout the stationery. The leaves were hand drawn and painted with watercolor by me.

4.10.2010

My dear friends Matt and Erica were married this past Saturday. As a way to show them the love, I made them a painting for their wedding gift. White tulips are Erica's favorite flower and were used in the wedding bouquets.

So, to Erica and Matt! I love you guys mucho and wish you the most amazing and fulfilling marriage life can offer.

PS: Have fun getting tan in the Caribbean! (I'm so jealous.)

PSS: If anyone is interested in a custom wedding watercolor, please let me know.

Lush

The dahlia painting is done. In fact it has been so for a while now, but today is the day I have decided to share it. My pictures of it are horrendous and I am so very sorry about that. However, I am just glad to be finished with it. I would love to know how you all feel about it.

Ciao! Jennie

FYI: click on the images for a full view. :)

Blue Steel

Here is quick study I did of a steel guitar this weekend. I am thinking of expanding upon the idea to make a much larger, more detailed painting at the request of my bf.

On a happy note, I think I have completed the dahlia painting. I say that I think I have because I want to sit with a bit more before I decide. When the time comes I will post it up here for you all to see.

Anyone partake in some creative projects this weekend? I want to hear about them!

Lemon Sky

This painting is done using a really easy transfer technique and a xerox of a photograph. The transfer process lends a very soft, fuzzy edge to the piece. After the transfer is complete I add pigment in the form of water soluble crayons and pencils and of course, watercolor.

The photograph was taken by Amanda Jacobs.

Splish Splash

Yay! I am so happy to announce that the sun is shining here today. Sadly, I understand this may not be the the case for everyone. Regardless, this got me daydreaming of summer and swimming and outdoor fun and so I decided to post this little painting; a fairly quick study of some koi-esq fish. This painting actually developed into two more paintings, both of which reside with my bf who seems quite smitten with them.

For All You Winos

I made some nifty little paintings for use over at The Wine Rack; a blog devoted to the savvy review of affordable, delicious wines from around the world. It is a great blog to check out if you are interested in anything wine related, especially affordability. So check it out and see some of my art in action! And as always, I would love to know what you think!

In the Clouds

Here is a quaint little painting I did of a giraffe yesterday afternoon. I can't quite remember where I got my inspiration for this silly thing, but I just had to paint it. The funny thing is, I feel like my head is amongst the clouds as I write this due to a lovely little cold.

Earthy

I hope everyone is having a lovely and fun filled weekend.
Above is a mushroom painting I did for a class assignment sometime last year.
Let me know what you think!