Dogs have always played a huge part in my life, from an early age my family joked that my first word was dog. It’s quite possible but not something I remember.
My cousins had numerous dogs from a lab to a Rottweiler, to a rescue mix breed. My nan and grandads neighbour would always come over when I was staying there with their black lab and I would feed her digestive biscuits, secretly in their kitchen.
When I was a kid my neighbours had a Doberman who was so tall she would peer over the fence. I would talk to her while I was in my climbing frame. I hated to read but I would read dog breed books (nothing else), I watched movies about dogs, I used to play dogs with my friends. It’s safe to say I was and still am slightly obsessed with dogs and animals in general. I was an only child from the age of 5 after my older brother sadly died, so I found comfort and companionship with my first rabbit Smokey (I wasn’t allowed a dog when I was young) Smokey was my first rabbit and acted like a dog, I spoke about her in another blog post (Click here to read https://jofrancesarts.art.blog/2021/11/13/to-affinity-and-beyond/) I used to take her out in my front garden and sit by the pond with her watching the fish. She never moved, I would also dress her up in doll clothes. But that’s another story.
I think from such a young age I filled the gap of not having a sibling with art and animals. Smokey was my best friend and I would always be with her when I was not at school. But I longed for a dog, and it wasn’t until I was 14 and we moved to a bigger house with a large garden then I got my first dog, Max a rescue black lab. He was amazing I remember being at school in my last lesson of History and desperate to get home to meet him. As soon as I walked through the door and he came running out of the kitchen up to me, I knew we would be life long friends and we were. He was there for me through every life event from the age of 14 up to my early 20s, friend fights, parents divorce, boyfriend break ups. He was my constant and we would sit on the bottom step of our stairs chatting and hugging and burying my tear stained face into his thick black fur. He never moved and if I stoped he would paw me or nudge me with his big head and silky ears.
He started off my reason for my first dog walking business although he was naughty on my walks. And my reason for going to Merrist Wood to study animal management and dog grooming course.
Anyway, enough of my private life history lesson. A few months ago I took a short break from social media. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and deflated with the constant pressure of posting and I could feel that I was starting to hit a creative wall. So before it all got too much and I resented doing social media and my creative work, I took a little break.
I would sit down and just draw on my iPad and things started to flow, because I let go of all the things on my to do list and just drew. I tried to call my inner child and thought about all the little drawings I used to draw as a child when I did this just for fun. I would make up all sorts of characters fantasy and real. And obviously I would draw a lot of dogs.
I then found Sara Fabre on Instagram ( https://instagram.com/sarafaber_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) who’s an artist and illustrator based in Berlin. She also has a YouTube channel and Patreon subscription, which I signed up to. I love her quirky illustrations of people and her landscapes. Her style is just so beautiful and her YouTube videos are so calming and tranquil. She also inspired me to get back into using my sketch book, which gave me the perfect reason to buy a new moleskin sketch book. Yay!
This journey was so enjoyable and I loved letting go and just doing something for fun and for myself. I’m also incredibly pleased and proud with how this collection has come out. I didn’t have any plans to release it but then I thought, what the hell, let’s just put them out there and let’s see how it goes. So with that here’s my latest collection, The Happy Dog collection. this collection consists of prints cards and new Stickers which I was soooooo exited about and happy how they have come out. So much so I brought my own Cricut machine to print my own stickers(still waiting for it to be delivered). This is so exciting and I cannot tell you how happy this makes me feel. I’ve also invested in a brand new fancy printer. I’ve been saving for a printer for so long now and I finally have one! I will be writing another blog post on both machines and sharing on social media so be sure to visit www.Instagram.com/jofrancesarts for that one!
Sniff out this new collection in my website www.jofrancesarts.co.uk
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