It Started With a Dog
Hi, and thanks so much for visiting my little design shop and for taking the time to read my story and how this shop came about. :)
After my husband and I got married, we moved into a small home together that we had just bought. I had just gotten into graduate school and we were starting to feel the pinch economically. Even though my degree is in the medical field, I have always been an artist at heart, and I love drawing, painting, and designing. One day a friend asked me to do a watercolor portrait of a dog as a gift. He loved it and told a few others about it. I thought, wow, maybe this could be something! I am not a huge dog person, but suddenly I found myself painting peoples' dogs from all over. I would post on Instagram and would get orders via direct message. It was such a relief to have some extra money coming in during that time of our life!
Once I got to graduate school, they gave me an Ipad for class. My husband saw the potential to take the dog paintings to a new level, so he downloaded Procreate for me. It was not something I enjoyed at first, but after a while I began to love creating digital art. From there I began doing more and more commissions to help pay for grad school, travel, and eventually to pay for childcare.
This Etsy shop is the latest evolution of that journey, which has always felt like a gift which comes at just the right time! I love creating these products for people, and it brings me so much joy and gratitude to see others enjoying and using my work. Please know your support means the world to me and my family!
For more information about us and our journey, you can visit us at cierradesignstudio.com.