How to Commission a Pet Portrait: What to Expect From Start to Finish

This is not just an explainer of what it’s like to commission a pet portrait with me, but I hope it provides some other useful tips and things to think about before parting with your cash.

Commissioning a portrait of your dog or cat can feel like a leap, I know most of my clients don’t view themselves as a patron of the arts and they’ve never commissioned a piece of art in their lives before, merely wanting to capture their beloved companion in a different medium to a photograph. To have a memory on their wall.

You’re trusting someone else to capture a creature you know better than anyone. At this early stage you’re researching artists, the style you like, the medium you prefer. Analysing the artist’s social media pages for the relevant photos of dogs or cats.

Do they love their pet as much as you love yours?

Personally, I think this is an important consideration alongside technique, but once you’ve found your artist and the style you’ve fallen in love with here’s what happens from your first message to the finished piece on your wall.

Step one: The Chat.

I find this often takes place over email or another messaging platform, I make it clear you can phone me if you prefer. I’ve noticed it’s generally Gen X and above that like to chat on the phone and anyone younger, it’s strictly messaging only!  

I ask about your animal and I ask about not just their colouring, but the things that make them them. The comical ear, the permanent frown, the way they sit like they’re judging you. This is the information that can feed my imagination, more than any technical brief. Be wary of an artist who doesn’t ask  for any characteristics.

I, and many other artists will ask for a deposit at this stage, it signals to me you’re serious about going ahead, we agree a timescale and move onto the next stage.

Step two: the reference photos.

A good portrait is helped greatly by a good reference photo. However I’m not in the business of copying a photograph to the letter, unless there’s a perfect photo that sums up your pets characteristics perfectly, then wonderful, I’ll work from that. But I’ll usually ask for a handful of photos, we’ll start with five so I don’t get your entire photo library 😉, natural light where possible, eye level, no filters (I once had a client who exclaimed that I’d painted their dog the wrong colour, only to realise they’d given me photo’s with a filter on them! I redid the painting in case you were wondering and more on that later).

If you’re not sure what “good” looks like, I’ll talk you through it, I’ve not yet got round to providing a guide, I know a lot of other pet portrait artists have. But I’m not a photographer, my friend Kerry at Fur & Fables is and she’s written a free guide here

If I need more photo’s I’ll ask.

This is usually the part people worry about most, and it can be difficult to decide on which photo’s, I’ve lost a few clients for a few weeks to this agonising decision!

Step three: the sketch and colour study.

Before a single brushstroke goes down properly, you’ll see a rough sketch — composition, pose, expression. This is your chance to say “that’s not quite their look” before we’re committed. I’ll also provide a swatch of my proposed colours (see above reference to working from photo’s with filters on them 😂) Better to catch anything here than at the end.

Step four: the painting.

This is where I disappear for a bit and well, paint! Other artists may share progress photos as they go along, I tend not to and there’s a reason why. Watercolour’s especially can look frankly quite ugly, as can my digital oils for that matter mid painting,  I’ll sometimes paint a watercolour more than once, it can easily go awry mid painting and I never want to alarm or stress out my clients, so I’ll start with a fairly good idea of what the final painting will look like and them, bam! drop in with the finished piece.

Step five: the reveal.

Finished piece, photographed and sent over for your reaction — which is, without fail, my favourite and most nerve wracking part of any commission.

What if I don’t like it?

It’s always a good idea to pose this question to any artist you plan on working with and many will have clear terms and conditions around this. Personally I don’t want my artwork going out to anyone who doesn’t absolutely love it, therefore there’s provision for up to three changes or one complete re-do, if I’ve missed the mark completely.Then it’s onto printing, framing, or shipping the original, depending on what you’ve chosen.
The whole thing typically takes [2-3weeks], start to finish. So, if you’ve been thinking about commissioning a portrait of your own pet, get in touch — I’d love to hear about them.