Dickinson mother-of-three turns hobby into thriving business
Feb. 24—DICKINSON — A Dickinson mother-of-three has turned her love of art into a thriving business creating digital portraits for customers. Brenna Schriver has completed around 50 portraits since starting at Christmas, noting that her inspiration came from a tattoo artist who uses the Procreate app. Brenna has honed her skills through YouTube tutorials and uses the app to create portraits that customers love. Her artwork even has an emotional connection for some, such as Samantha Taray, who commissioned a portrait of her family, including her late daughter Olive.
"I just kind of dove right in and made one for my sister. And it just went from there, I made a bunch for my friends. They encouraged me to put it out there and see if anyone else would be interested. And I've had a lot of interest," she said. "It's been really fun to do. I mean, I'm a busy mom of three with a full time job. So this gives me something else to do to kind of relax, like a fun hobby."
She's honed her graphic arts skills with Procreate by watching YouTube tutorials and hadn't realized the potential to create beauty that her tablet offered. She typically charges $20 per portrait, sometimes a little more or less depending on the level of detail required. She said most of them take about an hour to complete, two hours if it involves more intricacy in the photograph. She can bring multiple different images together.
"I've always really liked art, even from a young age. I just didn't know how much you could do... on an iPad," she said. "I really like art that means something... It's nice to give someone something that they'll always love and cherish forever."
Her longtime friend Rayne Idland helped her with marketing advice. Rayne is a photographer in Miles City, MT. Brenna did pictures of her pitbulls Kobe and Hennesy.
"My dogs are getting older and they are very important to me," Rayne said. "She was one of the first ones who really pushed me to start my own
photography
business. So seeing her start this, doing all of it with her little kids and everything is just, I'm so proud of her. I love what she's creating."
Brenna donates half of her proceeds from animal portraits to the Dickinson shelter
Raise the Woof.
Another customer was Samantha Taray, who saw one of Brenna's Facebook posts and knew it would be a great opportunity to get a picture that showed her whole family, including her stepdaughter Kiya who lives in Minnesota and her daughter Olive who she lost to a miscarriage after 22 weeks of pregnancy in 2015.
"I never got like, a family picture of all of us together," Samantha said, explaining why it's so special to her. "I'm holding the baby with a halo and angel wings because she's a part of our family. So it's nice to have a portrait that portrays that... I'm gonna get it printed on a canvas and hanging in my house, because it's the only family picture I have with all my children."
Samantha helps lead the Dickinson chapter of the
TEARS Foundation,
a non-profit that offers financial and emotional support to grieving families who've had miscarriages, or lost newborns and infants.
For more information on Brenna's art check out her Facebook page,
Brenna's Digital Creations.
