How to commission a portrait of your dog or any other pet
Our Dogs, Cats and other Pets are members of our families. The least we can do to honour and to imortalise them is to get their Portrait painted.
Your pet’s portrait can be in a form of a Photograph, a Drawing or a Painting.
Here are some suggestions of how to commission a portrait painting of your pet.
Photograph of your Pet
First of all, for me, as an artist, it is important to have a good photograph of your pet as a first step in preparation for the painting. Being also a qualified photographer myself I have a portfolio of pets photography and would like to share some tips.
When you photograph your pet yourself, please be sure that your photograph comes out sharp, but not too over exposed, so I can see most of the details of the pet – eyes, nose etc.. Your pet should be well lit up but try not to place it straight in front of thelight source. When I photograph a dog, for example, I usually use multiple sources of artificial light so the portrait is well lit up from all angles.
Don’t worry much about the background – it can be changed according to your specifications: I can paint a landscape of your choice or just to use a different colour.
Before taking a photograph you should decide should you wish to have a portrait of your pet’s head only or to include the entire body and the background in the picture. For the headshot, take as close up shot as possible and try to take it during the daylight.
Owners are understandably better positioned to photograph their pets then strangers, so make the best of it.
Size
Next thing to consider is the size of the canvas or a paper. It is more straightforward when it comes to choosing a paper as there are standard sizes A4, A3, A2. You can commission a pencil, charcoal or pastel drawing in any of these sizes.
For the painting I use pre-stretched canvases whose sizes vary. The most common size for my portraits commission is 50cmx70 cm. But you may order a smaller or a larger size of the painting, depending on the requirements of your interior.
Art Medium
It is also important for you to decide what medium to choose for the painting. Being a professionally trained artist I work across all art media – oil, acrylics, watercolour any other media of your choice. Colours of the background, for example, can be adjusted to match your interior, too.
