Glam Girls and Pretty Pups

Playing around with some ink and brushes this rainy weekend and these little fashion girls with adorable pups came alive on to the paper. 

Each little lady is about 2" tall. A tiny, short bristled round brush loaded with some Speedball Super 

Pigmented Acrylic ink in super black was used. 

Santa Barbara isn't used to the rain, but I am enjoying the feeling of being stuck inside with new set of brushes and some blank paper. 

I've also be playing around with more hand lettering these days and am preferring the fluidity of brush and ink to the classic style calligraphy pen nibs. I might need some time to get used to the whole set up, but the simplicity of black ink and bright white paper leaves no excuse for not practicing.

Cheers to a Happy Holiday and a Festive New Year

Happy holidays from Jennie, Kyle, Remy the Spinone and Riley the Tabby Cat.

This year we sent out illustrated holiday cards of our little furry family. The illustrations were hand drawn and colored digitally before being printed on a warm-white stock on my Canon Pro 9000. The colors were beautiful rich jewel tones when printed.

Insta Round Up: Fave Creatives on Instagram

I love Instagram. As a visual person it allows me to experience all kinds of fabulous in my favorite way. Unlike Facebook I get to filter out all of the fluff and just stick to the good stuff; the pictures. With that said, I would like to share some of my favorite Instagram creatives with you. From food and lifestyle photography to fashion illustration and fine art, these Instagrammers inspire awe and envy in me with their amazing talents and creativity.

If you are looking for some artistic inspiration in your Instagram feed I highly suggest you check out the following:

@paperfashion

@tadwagner

@toolkit04

@alice_gao

@dolcepress

 @glennarthurart

 @heatherbethtay

 @samesjc

I would love to hear your favorite Instagram creatives. Please share in the comments below.  

For puppy pictures, doodles and inspired lifestyle snapshots you can follow me on Instagram @jennielynnjacobs 

Pink Ink: More Peony Illustrations

Happy Monday everyone! Starting off a fresh week with some pretty floral ink drawings for everyone. These peony illustrations were a continuation of an ink peony drawing a I did a few weeks ago after being inspired by peony season. 

I'm thinking of making a set of greeting cards with some of these images and getting my Etsy shop back in action. Thoughts?

These drawings were created using  Prismacolors' dual ended art markers. The wide, chiseled tip can give a really great painterly quality to the drawings when utilized at its thickest point and with some brush-like strokes. 

Meet Remy - The Spinone Italiano Pup

I'd like to introduce you to Remy. The newest and cutest member of the family - sure give us lots of inspiration and keep us very busy with our cameras.

Remy is our 9 week old Spinone Italiano puppy. We got him at just under 8 weeks and he has been quite the handful and totally entertaining. 

Spinone Italianos are an AKC recognized breed. Bred for hunting and retrieving, the Spinone is a versatile and gentle breed often known for their human like eyes. You can learn more by visiting the Spinone Club of America.

Our top three questions when we take Remy out and about:

1. What kind of dog is that? 
Spinone Italianos are a fairly rare breed. We happened to meet this breed and some breeders last summer by chance. After a lot of research we decided this was the breed for us for is gentle nature and ability to a be great jogging and hiking companion. 

2. Will he stay that size?
Remy will be a big boy. His parents were 71 and 73 pounds and are quite tall.

3. Is he a lot of work?
Yes! All puppies are a lot of work. They take patience and lots of time to train. If you are interested in adopting a puppy from a breeder or local shelter please take the time to do your research! Puppies are a 10-15 year investment in your lives - they are not meant to be discarded or abandoned.

ALWAYS neuter and spay your pets!!!! 6 - 8 million cats and dogs enter shelters in the US each year (learn more at The Humane Society of The United States).

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.

Fresh Typography

fresh  [fresh]  adjective, fresh·er, fresh·est, noun, verb, adverb
adjective
1. newly made or obtained: fresh footprints.
2. recently arrived; just come: fresh from school.
3. new; not previously known, met with, etc.; novel: to uncover fresh facts; to seek fresh experiences.
4. additional or further: fresh supplies.
5. not salty, as water.

Feeling fresh this week and decided to play with a little hand lettered typography to capture the feeling!