How to get the pet portrait of your dreams

I painted 44 pet portraits in 2025. FOURTY FOUR. That is literally so many pet portraits!!! I loved painting them all and also I fell in love with every single one of them — so yes, I am entering 2026 with a heart that is 44 times bigger than the heart I had at the start of 2025.

Given all this ~*experience*~ I now have, I've found myself thinking a lot about what goes into an exceptional pet portrait: what are the common denominators in the ones that make me go "wow" and immediately text a photo to a friend when I finish them? Part of it is just the unpredictable nature of handmade art — the stars align, the brush strokes fall just right, the artist (me ◡̈ ) is moved by an unknowable spirit to make literal magic. But also, as it turns out, there are some tangible things that set up the artist (me ◡̈ ) to paint a predictably better pet portrait from the start.

The number one most important thing is the quality of the photo I work from. It might be helpful to think of this photo as the rough draft or blueprint for your painting. Remember, I have not met your pet — all I know about them is what you show/tell me. I allow folks to submit multiple photos, but the truth is that ONE of the photos you submit is going to become THE photo that I copy most precisely — any additional photos will just be references for adjustments based on your notes or my intuition as I'm working (more on that later).

If you, like me, have 30,000+ photos of your pet on your camera roll, you might now be wondering how you could possibly pick the right one. Here are some things to consider:

Qualities that make a photo a BAD foundation for a pet portrait:

• blurry, out of focus, small, pixelated, or poor quality
• bad lighting (usually indoors, dark, pet's face looks flat)
• hands or humans obscuring key parts of the pet

Qualities that make a photo a GOOD foundation for a pet portrait:

• in focus, good quality, large size photo
• soft natural lighting, probably not direct sun but definitely daytime, pet's face has interesting but not too harsh shadows
• pet is the main (only!) thing in the photo

Qualities that make a photo a FANTASTIC foundation for a pet portrait:

• personality: unique expressions, goofy grins, lolling tongues, asymmetrical eyes or facial features, etc. — basically, anything that makes your pet unique!

• interesting angles: most people submit photos of their pet's face straight-on from the front, and usually this is great, but every so often I get a profile photo or a photo with the face slightly at an angle, and these often translate beautifully in watercolor, which is a medium with a bit of a quality of movement to it

• paws: I have loved the few chances I've had to include *just* the paws with the face in a portrait, like if the pet is resting their head on their paws or staring up at the camera and their paws are on the floor below, it adds such dimension and personality

• dramatic lighting: this one can be risky, because sometimes dramatic lighting obscures, but sometimes it brings out beautiful, key features in your pet's face!

I have seen artists refuse to take pet portrait commissions that don't meet their specific parameters for high quality photos, and I have decided that this doesn't accord with what I'm trying to offer here. Some of the most cherished pet portraits I have painted have been of recently (or not so recently) deceased pets, so there was no possibility for the person who commissioned the piece to take new photos before ordering. If all you have is 2 blurry photos from 10 years ago, and you want something more to commemorate your beloved pet, it's actually really cool that you can commission a watercolor painting!

If you're in this situation — you have a limited number of low quality photos of a deceased pet — it really helps if you include notes that let me know what to highlight and focus on. As mentioned above, I mostly work from ONE main photo as the foundation for my painting. From there, here are some specifics about what I can and can't change:

Things I can't really change:

• the angle from which your pet is captured — I will be copying this as precisely as possible from the main photo
• the shadows and how the light hits their face
• their general expression (open versus closed mouth, shape of the eyes)

Things I might be able to change in some cases:

• tongue out or in — depends on the photo, and it is helpful to have a second photo as reference
• ear positions — a second photo as reference is absolutely necessary here
• whether or not I include a collar, tags, or a bandana
• body position for full body pieces — please note that there may be some inaccuracies here if I'm not copying an exact photo
• haircuts — more notes on that below!

Things I can change easily:

• overall coloring, i.e. "her fur is more amber" — it really helps to have an additional reference photo that is specifically noted as showing the "right" color
• eye color — additional reference photo also appreciated

One of the things I have found most challenging as I've continued to take pet portrait commissions are requests for breeds that regularly receive haircuts (doodles, terriers, etc.) to copy the haircut from one photo and the expression or position from another. This is very difficult for me! If you have a breed like this, I recommend you submit photos with the assumption that whichever photo you tell me features the haircut you want is going to become the main photo I work from when painting.

Another thing I have sometimes struggled with is when someone orders a full body portrait but doesn't submit any photos that clearly show the full body. If in doubt, I always recommend ordering the face only option. I love painting full body portraits — a regal cat on a wall, a dog with a really good sit, or a playful pup wagging their butt in the air — but the key is to have a REASON for it that makes the sacrifice to the detail you get in the face worth it.

I am so grateful to all of you who have trusted me to capture your sweet pets. In doing this work, it has been important for me to recognize that I have a particular style and that what I am creating each time is an art piece, NOT an exact replica of a photo or even of what a client tells me they see when they see their pet. I have friends who collect art pieces of their pets from different artists because they understand this so deeply — each one captures something different!

What you are getting when you order a pet portrait from me is my vision, my skill, and my attention to detail, focused wholly on your pet for the few hours I spend with them. I will notice and bring out things you didn't realize you see when you look at your pet, which is perhaps one of the great gifts of art: helping us see more clearly what we love.

Thank you so much for reading and supporting my work! I hope I get to paint your pet at some point in the future. ❤︎₊ ⊹