How Do You Commission a Pet Portrait From a Photo?

You need two or three clear photographs taken in daylight, at your pet's eye level, close enough to see the individual hairs around the muzzle. Email them after you order, I paint from them in roughly three to seven days, and you can ask for a rough sketch first so nothing is a surprise.

Three things get asked before every commission: what photo works, how long it takes, and whether you see it before it is finished. Here is the honest answer to all three, from the person who does the painting.

What photo do you need for a pet portrait?

Two or three photographs, taken on a phone, in daylight, from your pet's height rather than from yours. That is genuinely it. I do not need a professional shoot and I would rather have three ordinary photographs from this month than one beautiful one from four years ago.

What I am looking for in them is information: the direction the fur lies, the exact colour of the eyes, the shape of the patch over one ear. If the photo is small, dark, or shot from standing height above a dog looking up, that information is not in the file, and no amount of painting skill invents it. Standing height is the commonest problem by far — it foreshortens the muzzle and makes every dog look slightly like a different dog.

A short list of what helps:

• Crouch down so the camera is level with your pet's eyes.
• Shoot near a window or outside in shade, not in direct midday sun and not under a ceiling light.
• Get close enough that the head fills a good part of the frame, then send the original file rather than a screenshot.
• Send one photo of the whole animal too, even if it is not the pose you want — it tells me the proportions.
• If the eyes are dark, one photo with a window reflected in them is worth a great deal.

Older photographs of a pet who has died are a different case, and I take those on gladly. Send everything you have, including the blurry ones — between four or five imperfect images there is usually enough to reconstruct a face, and I will say so before I start if there is not.

Why does the light matter more than the camera?

Because watercolour is transparent. Every layer lets the paper show through, which is what gives the medium its glow, and it also means I am painting the light that was in the room when the photo was taken. Flat overhead light flattens the face. Direct sun blows out pale fur and blocks the shadows into black. Soft daylight from a window gives a ginger cat perhaps six distinguishable values from the top of the head to under the chin, and those values are the painting.

A recent phone in good light beats an expensive camera in bad light, comfortably. Choosing between two photos, take the better-lit one even if the pose is less charming — I can adjust a head angle; I cannot invent a shadow that was never there.

What is a digital proof, and when do you see it?

A proof is a photograph or scan of the work in progress, sent to you by email before I go any further. On a commission you can ask for a rough sketch outline of the piece before I start painting, so you can confirm you are happy with the pose, the crop and how the head sits on the paper. Say so in your first email — it is not automatic, because some people would rather be surprised.

The sketch stage is where changes are cheap. Moving an ear, cropping tighter, turning a three-quarter view straight on: all of that is a pencil line. Once watercolour is down it cannot be lifted back to white paper, so a change after painting has begun means starting the sheet again.

If what you actually want is the image rather than the object, a high-resolution digital copy at 300 dpi can be emailed to you — useful if you want to print it large yourself, or if the gift has to arrive by a date the post cannot promise.

How long does a commission take?

The painting itself takes approximately three to seven days from the point I have your photographs, depending on what else is on the desk. Then it has to reach you. Original artwork goes tracked with Canada Post; postage is CA$10.00 to Canadian and US addresses and CA$25.00 internationally, and anything large enough to need it ships rolled in a postal tube. Smaller work travels flat in a sturdy card envelope with a cellophane sleeve.

For a gift, work backwards and add a fortnight of slack. Ordering three weeks before the date is comfortable; ordering four days before it is a digital copy, and I will say so rather than let you find out. December is the month this matters most.

How many pets can go in one painting?

The face counts on each listing refer to standard larger pets — cats, dogs, horses. Small animals are different arithmetic: several hamsters or reptiles can often share a sheet at a size where two labradors could not. If you have a household of five and want them together, email before ordering and I will tell you what actually fits.

Two pets who were never photographed together are fine. I work from separate references and compose them, which is the one thing a painting does that a photograph cannot.

What size should it be, and where does it go?

For a single animal's head and shoulders, something around 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 in) reads properly from across a room without dominating a wall. Two pets want roughly 28 x 36 cm (11 x 14 in) minimum, because each face needs about the same amount of paper as a single portrait needs on its own.

Hallways and stair walls suit portraits better than most people expect — you pass them at close range, which is where the detail in the fur pays off. Above a console or sideboard, hang the centre about 145 to 150 cm (57 to 59 in) from the floor and leave 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8 in) of clear wall between the furniture and the bottom of the frame.

If the portrait is joining an existing wall rather than starting one, something near it should share a colour. A pale ochre in a dog's coat sits happily beside the warmer end of my animal and bird prints, and a portrait looks less marooned in a room that already has a couple of living room wall art prints in a related palette.

Is a commission the right gift?

It is the right gift for someone who has the pet now, or had one recently enough that the loss is still spoken about. It is the wrong gift for someone whose photographs you cannot get hold of — a surprise commission needs the owner's camera roll, and asking a mutual friend is the usual workaround.

If the surprise is the point and the photographs are not available, a piece of personalized wall art carrying a name or a date does the same emotional job without needing the reference images. And if the occasion is a new baby rather than a pet, I have written separately about personalised baby gifts that are not another blanket, which covers the same ground for a different recipient.

What do I need from you to start?

Order the size you want from the custom pet portraits page, then email [email protected] with your photographs and anything I should know — a favourite expression, a collar that has to be right, whether you want a sketch first. Prices begin at CA$53.99 for the smallest option before postage.

One practical note, said plainly because it belongs in writing rather than in small print: I keep copyright in the paintings I make, and a commission may be reproduced as a print later. If that would bother you, tell me before I begin and I will keep the piece exclusive to you.

The next decision is not really which size. It is whether you have a photograph at your pet's eye level, in daylight, taken recently — and if you do not, that is twenty minutes with a phone and a treat this weekend.