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Sep
16

Orlando, Florida Birthday Portrait

Orlando, Florida Birthday Portrait

Girl in unicorn dress holding a pink water balloon with a pink sky behind her. In the pink sky are clouds forming the number seven and two unicorns with rainbows coming out of their horns. Orlando children's portraits.
My baby turned 7 years old!

I always create a portrait of each child around their birthday to celebrate. And each child gets to choose what’s in their portrait, I essentially, just make it happen. 

This year she took inspiration from Lisa Frank and this became her very happy & very colorful seven year old portrait! 

Happy Birthday, baby girl, you are loved to Mars and back!

Love,

Your Mama

Up close of girl in unicorn dress with pink water balloon.
Sep
08

Orlando, FL Christmas Portraits

Orlando, Florida Christmas Portraits

Santa coming in with presents and three sisters are shocked to see him.
Ready for Christmas?!

I know, I know…it’s SEPTEMBER!!

BUT, spots fill up fast and my portraits, especially painted portraits take some time to create.

So, if you’re ready for a fun portrait that celebrates your fantastical life this Christmas – fill out the form below and we’ll set up a complimentary consultation to chat about your fun family!

Until soon,

Isa

Jul
30

It’s been a year.

A year ago today we lost my mother in law. 

She was an incredibly loving woman and she’s been severely missed this past year. 

Keep enjoying Heaven, Mercedes, you’re loved here on this little rock that’s floating in space. 

Grandma with her grandson at his wedding.
Jun
16

Family Painted Portrait in Clermont, Florida.

Family Painted Portrait at The Showcase of Citrus in Clermont, Florida.

Boy throwing oranges at a shocked cow who likes to eat oranges, baby boy flying out of monster truck school bus while mom looks up from her knitting shocked, dad target practicing with his faithful hunting dog with a giant teepee and creamsicle in the background. Family portraits in Orlando Florida.

This full of life mom contacted me for a family portrait that would be different and that her husband would tolerate. I’m all for different, and I super love impressing husbands with how efficient and fun my portraits are to make.

BUT, when she filled out her questionnaire she mostly filled it with information about knitting and farmers markets and I honestly thought we wouldn’t be a good fit, because most of my portraits are much more high energy. 

Anyway, during our phone call I discovered The Showcase of Citrus in Clermont as she had me crying tears of pure happiness as she described her very sweet & fun family and all the fun things they love doing there!

That’s when we knew this had to happen at the showcase. 

I called and was given permission to come over and create most of this portrait there. (Dogs and guns are not permitted there.)

So that’s what we did. 

Painted white fluffy clouds against a blue sky family portrait in Orlando FL.

I started with the sky and clouds.

Little boy throwing an orange with Australian animals looking at him. Different family portrait Orlando FL

Then added the grasses, dirt, animals, and buildings…so I could put in her silly family! Her son LOVES giving oranges to cows so he wanted to quickly throw an orange in this portrait. (The cows here LOVE eating oranges as much as their son LOVES throwing them!)

We tried so hard to get his little surprise reflex going, but he was so exhausted when we were together that he just needed to nap. So we went with it and let him sleep while flying through the air! (Okay I don’t actually throw children in the air for these portraits. He was actually on a table and perfectly safe the whole time.) 

Mom knitting in a monster truck school bus and freaking out as her child goes flying out the side of the bus. Different and fun painted family portraits Orlando Fl

The monster truck school buses that give guests tours at the showcase, of course, had to be included. We thought it’d be funny to include mom’s knitting with the hilarity of the school bus and her freaking out that her baby is flying out of the monster truck school bus!

Next, we headed out to their home to get an image of dad with his hunting rifle that’s been passed down through the family. 

Dog family portrait Orlando, FL.

His trusty hunting dog was an absolute little lady the whole time I was there and she politely struck a pose for this portrait like the fantastically trained dog that she is!

And that’s how this silly and very different family painted portrait created to celebrate a fun family activity that their family currently enjoys turned out. 

When I showed them their painted portrait they ALL screamed and freaked out, so I think they enjoyed it…you know…just a little bit. 🙂

I hope you loved celebrating this silly family as much as I have!

Love,

Isa

If you’d love a silly portrait of your family that celebrates a favorite place of yours, fill out the form below and to set up your complimentary consultation.

May
26

An Athletic Family, Orlando Family Portraits

This super cute mom was interested in a different family portrait. She has seven children who are all very active in sports and she was telling me how she basically lives her life revolving around all her children’s activities. 

That sounds exhausting to little me who only has three children. 

Then her husband chimed in that they have this big van for their big family and it should be included too!

So then I started asking questions to figure out how we were going to make this happen.

I ended up finding out that their children do almost all of their practicing in the front yard because they have a lot of animals in their backyard! 

And so the idea of this portrait was born!

We started with a picture of their front yard and the van.

Mom taking pictures of her children playing sports, son with his cowboy hat and animals, and son jumping a track and field hurdle.

I then added mom who is typically spending her children’s sport times busy taking pictures of her awesome children.

Their oldest child is now in college to become a vet and the family jokes that he’s a cowboy….so he put on his cowboy hat, rope, and was surrounded by animals for his part of the portrait.

Another brother is great at running track and even practices jumping over hurdles in their front yard!

Then I added a brother whose favorite sport is baseball, another brother who loves football, and their daughter who loves volleyball!

And last, but not least, the basketball players, their father, and their sweet dog were added. 

Added some coloring and lighting to the sports family portrait in Orlando Florida.

Then I added some lighting to their portrait to get it ready for digital painting! 

And then it was digitally painted.

Painted portrait of the sports family in Orlando Florida.

Here are some close ups of the digital painting.

Close up of mom with her camera and the cowboy son with his animals. Orlando Florida Family Portraits
Football painted portrait Orlando, Fl.
Basketball playing children and dad recording video family portrait Orlando, FL.

They actually preferred the more digital version of their painted portrait so I left it as this for printing onto a stunning metal piece. 

I hope you loved celebrating this super sporty family as much as I have!

Love,

Isa

If you’d love a sporty portrait of your athletic family, fill out the form below and to set up your complimentary consultation. 


May
04

You Are Powerful!

You Are Powerful!

Let me tell you a story that’s haunted me for years.

This story starts during WWII.

There’s a group of Christians who’ve been meeting in a little house whose backyard backs up to a railroad track.

Down the road from this house a Jewish ghetto is built and many Jews were brought there to live.

Sometime later, cattle cars were brought to the train station that’s between the ghetto and the house and Jews were taken from the ghetto and placed on those cattle cars to be sent to their final destination – a death camp.

So as the Jews keep getting loaded up into these cattle cars and sent away, the Christians end up realizing what is happening.

Now at this part in the story, my brain, being my brain – starts to go wild. I start thinking of all the ways that Christians can sabotage the train tracks or cattle cars or anything along the way that they can figure out to do to save these people from their impending doom. I know you love a good story about how the good guys find a way to defeat evil just as much as I do…..

…..and the story continued……

The Christians decided that how they would deal with this would be that when they got together, they would sing their hymns louder to drown out the sounds of the Jews screaming as they were sent to their death.

They sang their hymns louder.

This is normally when my brain goes into overwhelm and my stomach gets sick from this story.

They sang their hymns louder. <—- This single phrase is what I measure my life against.

I don’t care if you’re Jewish, Christian, Agnostic, or Hindu.

They sang their hymns louder is a sickening response to the travesty that was around them.

Today we’re walking into a new travesty and only a person who’s completely clueless about history is oblivious to this.

You are more powerful than you think.

You can accomplish more than you think.

You are smarter than you think.

Please step into the power you were born with.

Humanity needs you.

Love,

Isa

You Are Powerful. A statement to encourage you to do what's right in life. Orlando Family Portraits
Mar
15

Orlando, FL Limited Edition Sessions

I’ve had some requests come in from families looking for a “mini session” type of session for their children. 

I’m fine with giving this a trial run if there’s enough interest. 

Here’s an example of how one session would run:

  1. We’d start with a theme, this example session is Valentine’s. 
  2. Your child chooses his or her background.
  3. Your child then poses for the background on the day of the session. 
  4. Your child is placed onto the background with extra editing included so he or she looks like he or she should be there. 
  5. Your child chooses one extra addition to his or her portrait.
  6. Then you choose how you want the portrait to be displayed in your home – Matted Print, Canvas, or Metal. 
  7. Come pick up your masterpiece & some cupcakes just for fun. 
Looks like a paper cut out scene of green mountains, little green trees, a blue sky with a big rainbow and clouds, bright golden sun, and a big red heart balloon.

Above is one of the backgrounds available for Valentine’s sessions. 

Then I took a picture of my daughter, placed her in the scene with a shadow and made sure her coloring and lighting looked like it worked with the scene. 

Girl grabbing giant heart balloon standing in grass with green mountains, blue sky, a big rainbow with clouds, and a bright sun that looks like a cut out paper scene.

The last touch was adding some grass to the scene. It was originally made to look like the child was floating up into the sky while holding onto the heart balloon. BUT, she wanted to look like she was on the ground, so grass was added. 

I do need a minimum of five families in order to do these mini sessions, so if you’re interested in the next one…fill out the form below to show your interest. 

Have a happy day out there!

Love,

Isabel

Mar
10

Nerf Shoot Out Children’s Pictures in Orlando, Florida.

Nerf Battle Children’s Picture

Sand and a light blue sky put together to start out the portrait.

When it was decided that we would create a nerf battle portrait…the idea was to make it almost post apocalyptic looking. 

So I knew we’d go with just some brown dirt or sand for the ground and a simple sky in the background.

This was how it started out. 

But then it felt like it needed to be darker. So I brought in another sky I had that’s darker, darkened the sand and added a smidge of light to the right hand side to draw in the viewer’s eye across the portrait to the right.

I then added a skyline to the background so it would look like a city was behind them that could have been abandoned since there aren’t any lights on in these tall buildings.

Siblings added to the portrait. The two brothers are facing each other shooting a dart at each other. Little sister is hiding behind biggest brother with a little nerf pistol in hand.

Here I cut the three children off of the backgrounds they were photographed against and placed them where they needed to be in this scene with a bit of toning/coloring added.

Two brothers aiming at each other to shoot nerf guns and little sister hiding behind her oldest brother with a little nerf gun in hand.

Then the picture was finished up with some smoke, flying darts, and lighting to make it pop with all of their imagination!

With love,

Isabel

If you’d love an imaginative portrait of your children, fill out the form below and to set up your complimentary consultation. 


Feb
25

Camping at Disney

Camping at Disney

My late mother-in-law loved to see her children and grandchildren happy. 

We decided to go camping at Disney World for my oldest’s 10th birthday and while she loved being around her “grandbabies”…she just wasn’t well enough to go camping. 

She used to bug me that she wanted a big family portrait with all of her children and grandchildren in it and everyone but three were able to go camping this weekend…so I knew it was my chance to get close to making exactly what she wanted!

Sketch of the extended family portrait with a car in it that never made it to the final painting.

We started out with a sketch and a text to everyone showing an idea of what would be created. 

I later discovered that there was no way to fit all of this on a portrait that would have a more “regular size” to it….so some changes had to be made in the end…but such is life. 

Since these are my in-laws, I kinda know them all pretty well and personality tests didn’t happen. We were just going to roll with our typical camping attire of shorts, t-shirts, and swim suits. 

Composite of the campsites at Fort Wilderness at Disney World with a grassy background instead of trees.

I began this painted portrait with a composite of the campsite from about seven different images. The tent is huge and had to be split into two pictures that I stitched together to make it look like one. Also, the campsites there have lots of trees and bushes which make each site more private…but produce a very busy backdrop…so I took those out and added a sky and grass that I had instead. 

Campsite with big giant tent at Fort Wilderness in Disney World. Some clouds, sunshine, and clouds spelling out

I added a little sunshine to the background, some clouds, and ‘cloud-like’ letters spelling out “Feliz Navidad” since this was going to be my mother-in-law’s Christmas present. 

Now some people have been added to the Fort Wilderness campground portrait. There's a mom jumping, another mom ready to catch something, and two boys looking like they're going to throw something.

Now it’s time to add people! Since I was putting myself almost the most furthest back in this painting, I’m up first jumping to catch a kiddo who will be added. My sister-in-law is next to me ready to catch a kiddo who will be added later and two kiddos are striking poses for an epic water balloon fight. 

Two teen age children added with a hammock that's moving quickly. Along with another mom ready to catch a child and a dad with meat to grill and another dad looking up at the sky near the grill.

And now it’s time to add some of the older cousins with a hammock that they’re going to use to launch their younger cousins. Another mom’s been added ready to catch a child and my husband is getting ready to grill with big flames with his brother’s empty plate that will have hamburger patties added. 

Here I’ve added three girl cousins who are going to be painting a rainbow in the sky. The two younger girl cousins are striking poses to act like they’re throwing water balloons at their big cousins who are going to launch their brothers. And one more brother-in-law is holding up his daughter to paint the sky and acting like he was eating a s’more. (I added the s’more later.) And some fire’s been added to the grill. 

A baby deer has been added along with a dad lifting weights with candy canes, a turkey, and another mom acting like she's eating a s'more.

Since it’s weird to magically lose your legs and hang from the sky, I made it incredibly more realistic by adding a cloud to hold up the cousin up in the air. JA! And another sister-in-law has been added along with a picnic table and she’s pretending to eat a s’more. My brother-in-law is flexing his muscles to weight lift super heavy…candy canes. Oh and turkeys run around Fort Wilderness a lot…so I added one of those for fun. 

Two more cousins were added here who are being launched by their older cousins. S’mores are now in the hands of the dessert lovers and giant butterflies have been added around the top rainbow painter…just for good measure. 

Water balloons, another child being launched from the hammock, and candy canes have now all been added making the compositing portion of this extended family painted portrait at Disney's Fort Wilderness complete.

And, last, but not least…the last launched cousins have been added along with a rainbow, water balloons, and candy canes! 

Now that the compositing is done…it’s time for digital painting. 

Digital painting takes quite a bit of time to complete and adds in better coloring, lighting, strokes, and vibrance to the portrait. Below is what it looks like after I’ve digitally painted this portrait. 

Here are some close up portions of the digitally painted portrait. 

Up close image of girl standing on father's hand painting sky with a juice box.
Up close of painting showing two moms ready to catch sons being launched.
Up close of mom eating a s'more at Disney's Fort Wilderness in Orlando Florida.
Up close of dad in extended family portrait eating a s'more at Disney's Fort Wilderness Orlando FL
Then this was printed on canvas and acrylics were painted over the canvas finishing the masterpiece.
Some close up views are shown below. 
Up close of painted portrait of mom trying to catch her son who's been launched by his cousins.
Deer at Fort Wilderness Disney campground in Orlando, FL painted portrait with boy flying through the air.
Close up detail of dad grilling at Fort Wilderness showing the acrylic paints on the canvas portrait.
Dad lifting candy canes like he's lifting weights painted portrait details with acrylics showing on canvas.
Boy getting ready to throw a purple water balloon close up detail of painting on canvas with acrylics.

And that’s how this was made!

My mother-in-law grabbed it, ooh-ed and ahhh-ed, counted all her people, immediately hung it on her wall, and told me she still wants another one with EVERYONE in it. JA! 

Love and hugs to you,

Isabel

If you’d love to have a fun family painting of your extended family, fill out the form below to set up your complimentary consultation! 

Feb
20

Welcome!

Welcome to my new site!

The last website needed some updating so I decided to create this new one.

I’m so excited to break down my processes on here so you can get a fun glimpse into how each of my different types of portraits are created. 

I love celebrating people just being their own awesome selves and I can’t wait to show you all the fun that you bring into this world.

With all my love,

Isa

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Painted Portraits

Family & Children's Pictures

Limited Editions

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About

Fantastical Family Portraits

Fantastical Children's Portraits

Family & Children's Pictures

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