What is a pet portraits artist?
When people ask what i do for a living, they don't quite understand what a pet portrait artist does. As funny as it may seem, the most common question is 'so you actually paint peoples pets?!' and that follows with, 'Do the animals sit for you in your studio while you paint them?'
So to clarify, yes a pet portrait artist does paint pets for clients and no, it would be an impossibility to paint pets from life, we work from photographs for many different reasons. Apart from the fact, that you could never get a horse to stand indoors next to your easel, they'd pretty soon get fed up and want the bathroom...... : )
Its also very difficult to explain what kind of artist you are as there are so many different styles and techniques – hopefully each artist will be an individual and try to offer something a little different. Styles can range from pop art, to abstract, to bold colours to tiny miniature watercolours, to big traditional oils. There are sketchy styles, photographic and realistic styles and of course now with the introduction of digital, there are many digital artists coming on the scene, from retouching photos, to creating full paintings in the computer using a stylus pen and graphics software or painting program.
Painting and drawing probably takes longer than many people realise. It can take up to 2 or 3 weeks to complete a very large oil painting so as you can see it would be impossible for the pets to sit still and be available for that amount of time.
Also pet portrait artists are scattered far and wide - worldwide, and so they can be commissioned by clients from anywhere in the world. That's the beauty of being a pet portrait artist, we can all work from home or a studio and work where and when we like.
So it is imperative to work from good quality photos as its more than likely the artist wont be able to see your pet in the flesh so to speak. A good range of photos is needed and with digital cameras being more and more readily available these days, they are the perfect tool to obtain the perfect photo.
When i am lucky enough to get the chance to draw or paint a dog locally i usually take between 50 and 60 photos in one photoshoot. I snap away the entire time and this guarantees me at least one or two really good quality, in focus photos that hold the dogs character and personality. This is a necessity.
Hopefully i have given you a bit of an overview of what a pet portrait artist does, and if you would like to view my galleries to give you a better idea, click on this link – view my pet portraits galleries
This is Oliver and he was painted to teh size of 30 x 20in oils on canvas. Click here to read more about olivers pet portrait
