Author: isadora

Colorful Pet Portraits | Modern Dog Art

Posted on by isadora

Bold and colorful pet art… I love it!

It is just super-fun to paint portraits of people's pets using a lot of color, movement and fun styling in the painting. While I also will happily paint in a subtler palette if that's what appeals to a client (after all, their happiness is absolutely my top priority), I do have a lot of clients come to me asking for colorful, whimsical, surreal and dreamy portraits of their pets. It's a little something I offer that is different from other portrait artists, and that is special.

When it comes to my Day of the Dead styled paintings, color is just naturally a part of that art's style. But in my contemporary pieces, it can always come into play as well. Color-lovers, enjoy!

Rockabilly and Tattoo-Inspired Gift Ideas

Posted on by isadora

Searching for "tattoo gifts" can lead to some pretty terrible, cliche suggestions. Below are a few that are actually cool. Enjoy!

Personalized Traditional Tattoo Print

This print is beautiful, and can be personalized with any names or phrase you would like.

It makes a great wedding or anniversary gift with the sweeties' names in the banner, or you can have any phrase you'd like placed in the scroll, such as "True Love" or "Never Forget".

It's printed on a really heavy, textured, beautiful paper with gorgeous inks, and it's under $20, no matter which size you choose (8x10 inches or 11x14 inches, which will both slip right into a standard frame).

Click here to get it!

Pin-Up Jewelry Box

Have you bought some jewelry for your honey, and you need the perfect box to put it in? You're covered…

All three of these boxes are pretty fantastic.

Vintage-style pin-up girl: This sailor-style beauty is traditional and gorgeous. Click here to get it.

Swallow on red box: This one comes personalized on the front with your sweetie's name. Click here to get it.

Custom pin-up box: Have a box created with your sweetie as a pin-up, along with her name! Totally unique. Click here to get it.

Personalized Throw Pillow

Here's a gift that can be snuggled up to every night… and it is personalized!

Click here to get it!

There are some other designs in the store, including an anchor and scroll, or a heart and arrow with a scroll. They're all great.

Koi Fish Traditional Tattoo Print

This is another gorgeous print.

Traditional Japanese tattoo-style art with swirls of water and koi in a yin-yang design. It's printed on beautiful, heavyweight paper and cmes in perfect sizes to drop into a frame. An easy gift that'll look great on the wall.

Click here to get it!

Create her name in hand-painted letters!

If your sweetie likes cherry blossoms, here's a great idea. Order the letters of her name painted with traditional wind bars and cherry blossoms.

Or, order a word, such as "love" in the letters.

No matter how you do it, this is a gift that will last for years and will be enjoyed every day.

Click here to get it.

Tattoo Art Gift Tags

Top of your gift with one of these gift tags. The scrolls on the fronts of the tags are blank so that you can write the name of your gift recipient in them. What a unique idea for gift tags! The name becomes a part of the art (and the art, by the way, is really beautiful)!

Also great is the fact that these tags aren't made from paper, like most gift tags. They're made from a heavy-weight card stock, so again, not a throw-away item.

Click here to get them!

The Best Mother’s Day Gift Ideas – buy hand-made

Posted on by isadora

Hand-made gifts last a lifetime

Recently, when we gave one of my hand-painted, personalized jewelry boxes to a relative at Christmas, I was humbled by the response. My husband's cousin was absolutely thrilled and immediately got in touch to say how much the gift meant to him and his daughter. "This will last a lifetime" is the response we received. How amazing to think of a gift lasting a lifetime, when so much that people buy these days are throw-away items.

Mind you, this is a jewelry box that I sell for only about $30 in my shop. But what floored him was not the price, and that's the beauty of hand-made and personalized gifts. It was the fact that this gift is one-of-a-kind. We didn't run to the store at the last minute and buy something in a hurry. This is a gift that was thought out and created with care, just for his daughter.

The point of all of this is that we have a choice when we give to those we love. I encourage everybody to give thoughtfully, and if possible, to give hand-made from a small shop or individual artist. If it's something from my shop, thank you! I think my hand-painted gifts and pet portraits are fantastic gifts that will last forever. But even if it's not from my shop, I encouraging supporting any working artist while giving unique and beautiful gifts that come from the heart.

Happy Mother's Day to all of those amazing moms out there!

Save on Art to Save Hemi

Posted on by isadora

Sad news from the vet today, as a biopsy of a growth on my dog's paw came back abnormal. The tumor has to be removed, and with its location and continued growth, the sooner we do that the better.

I've added a coupon code to my shop for 15% off of any purchases over $50, for sales to put towards his surgery and recovery. If you've been considering commissioning a portrait of your own pet, or are just on the lookout for some amazing art and hand-painted gifts, use the coupon code HELPHEMI at checkout to support my sweet pup. I'll keep the coupon valid until there have been enough sales to cover his vet fees. Please feel free to share the code with friends.

Hug your pets tightly! They are precious, and who knows how long we will be blessed with their presence.

Beautiful Pet Memorials – Portraits to Remember

Posted on by isadora

I'm often asked to paint portraits of pets who have passed over the rainbow bridge. It's a bittersweet process for both me and my clients. It's an honor when they choose me as the artist to capture their dog, cat or other beloved, lost pet, and I feel privileged to be a part of their healing as they share special memories and stories with me during the creative process. Often, it's a friend of the person who has lost a pet who comes to me to commission a portrait as a gift for their friend. I can't think of a more thoughtful gift.

Sometimes clients choose to have a contemporary portrait painted, but many also choose to have a Day of the Dead style of portrait created as a memorial of their pet. I live in southern Arizona where we have a huge Día de los Muertos celebration every year. Being a part of this culture has inspired me to offer the sugar skull pet memorials, and I have been surprised, actually, by how many people know and understand their significance and have been thrilled to have found somebody who will paint a sugar skull of their pet.

No matter what style of portrait people choose, I'm honored to have the opportunity to help them through the grieving process, and to present them with something beautiful to have in their home to always remember their dear, special lost pet. If you are interested in learning more about the portraits I offer, please click here to go to my website.

 

Only the Coolest Valentine’s Gifts

Posted on by isadora

Valentine's Day approaches, and I'm sure there are a lot of guys out there wondering exactly what to give their girlfriends or wives.

Rest easy, fellas. I've got you covered.

My hand-painted jewelry boxes have a very cool, edgy feel to them and most of them have a rockabilly / tattoo styling to the art. They are the perfect box in which to give jewelry or other small gifts, and they are entirely unique. Even better, they all are personalized with her name (in the photos, note the banners on the fronts and lids of the boxes), and one of the box options has your own honey painted as a pin-up on the lid. Super-cool.

Check out the boxes, plus all of my other hand-painted tattoo-style gifts and goodies at www.artbyisadora.etsy.com

Being Unique – Pet Portraits

Posted on by isadora

When you google the term pet portraits, you find pages upon pages of talented artists offering their services. It's amazing.

On one hand, I am thrilled to see so many artists out there doing it. Hooray for artists working! I wish every single one of them success.

On the other hand, it of course begs the question, "Well then, what can I bring to the table, with so many others out there already doing what I want to do?"

The answer, thankfully, came pretty easily to me, because it's a philosophy I've carried with me in everything I've done throughout my life. It is what I would suggest to any other artist contemplating trying to make a business out of their art:

BE DIFFERENT

My animal portraits are different than any of the other pet portraits I've seen. They are bold, contemporary and colorful, and have a style all their own. There are several benefits to this. One fantastic one is that when I say I wish competitors success, I can do so honestly, because they're not offering the same product that I am offering. Also, in my work I feel like I'm presenting something fresh and new into the world rather than recreating something that already exists. When you see my work, you know it's my work. It can't be mistaken for another artist's painting.

Of course, in being unique, my drawing and painting style may not be everybody's taste, and that is 100% OK with me. For those who are drawn to it, what a fantastic event that is! They found something different and beautiful to them, and it's something that only I an create. Luckily for me, I've had some great success during this first year as a professional pet portrait artist, and have some very happy clients out there enjoying my art.

So, to all of the other artists out there wondering if this is something you can or should do, I say this:

FIND WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE, AND CREATE THAT

There will always be somebody out there who loves what only you can create.

Follow my blog for more art musings, art supplies/product reviews, news about my work and events I may be attending. Also, please be sure to check out my Etsy shop at artbyisadora.etsy.com for some amazing pet portraits, tattoo art, hand-painted gifts and more!

A Beautiful World

Posted on by isadora

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Why do we do what we do?

There are more directions a person can take in life than I can reasonably wrap my head around. A child may dream to be an astronaut, a dancer, a doctor, a race car driver, an architect, a teacher… the list is endless. Hopefully most of you have followed your dreams, or have made some new ones along the way as your life evolved and embraced those.

I've chosen to make things. I want to paint, create, imagine and in so doing, make the world a little more beautiful in my own small way.

That's why this site exists, and hopefully you enjoy what you see.

Thanks for visiting!

~ Isadora

Follow my blog for more art musings, art supplies/product reviews, news about my work and events I may be attending. Also, please be sure to check out my Etsy shop at artbyisadora.etsy.com for some amazing pet portraits, tattoo art, hand-painted gifts and more!