How to Get the Perfect Photo for a Custom Pet Portrait

The single biggest factor in whether a custom pet portrait turns out great isn't the artist. It's the source photo.

I've drawn pet portraits from photos that ranged from "professional studio shoot" to "blurry potato." Here's the honest truth: a well-lit phone photo beats a Nikon DSLR shot taken in a dim hallway. Lighting and angle do 80% of the work.

Here's how to get it right in five minutes.

The setup

1. Find soft, indirect light

Open a window during daytime, stand the pet a few feet away from it. Don't put them in direct sunlight — it creates harsh shadows on their face and washes out fur color. Cloudy days are actually ideal for this.

Avoid:

• Flash (flattens features, gives "demon eyes")
• Backlight (you'll get a silhouette of a pet, not a portrait of one)
• Overhead kitchen lights (too yellow, harsh shadows under chin)

2. Get on their level

The most common pet-photo mistake: shooting from human standing height. You end up with a top-of-head shot and very little face.

Sit on the floor. Lie on your stomach if necessary. Get the camera at the height of their eyes. The whole portrait feel changes — suddenly they look like a character, not a coffee table.

3. Fill the frame with their face

For a portrait, the face should fill at least 60% of the frame. If their whole body fits, you're too far back.

Don't crop in afterwards — that loses resolution. Get close at the shooting moment, by either moving in physically or using a real zoom (most modern phones have a 2x or 3x optical zoom that doesn't degrade quality).

4. Get their attention just off-center

Eye contact with the camera reads as alert and engaged. But — counterintuitively — having them look slightly past the camera (at a treat held next to it, for instance) often makes for a more interesting portrait. Their expression softens.

If they're a dog: a squeaky toy held just above the lens works. If they're a cat: forget any of this, just take 200 photos and pick the one where they didn't blink.

What to send the artist

For our process specifically, we want:

• 1–3 photos, not 30. Pick your favorites.
• Highest resolution available. If you took it on your phone, AirDrop or send the original — don't screenshot, don't crop, don't filter.
• One full-body shot if possible. Even if the portrait will be face-only, we like seeing their proportions.
• Notes on what's distinctive. "She always tilts her head left when confused." "He has a black mark over one eye that looks like a pirate patch." "His ears are uneven and we love it." This is what makes the cartoon look like them.

What to avoid sending

• Group photos. Even if you only want the dog cartooned, isolate the photo first or flag clearly which subject we're drawing.
• Snapchat / Instagram screenshots. They've been compressed twice and we'll lose all the detail.
• Photos through glass. Window glare destroys the photo.
• Heavily-filtered photos. If you've cranked the saturation, we'll be drawing a fictional version of your pet.

Style options worth thinking about

Before you commission, decide what kind of portrait you want. The same photo can become any of these:

Loving-roast cartoon

The pet in a funny scene that captures their personality. Bear, the lab who has stolen 47 sandwiches from the kitchen counter. Best for gifts.

Royal portrait

The pet in regal Renaissance-painting style — crown, robes, dramatic curtains. Makes a great wall piece.

Action / hobby scene

The pet doing what they love most. Hiking, swimming, sleeping in a sunbeam, terrorizing the mailman.

Family group portrait

Pet plus humans. Slightly more involved (more faces to capture), but works beautifully as a family Christmas card front.

Output formats — what makes sense for your gift

• Digital file — best for sharing online or printing at your local lab
• Mug — daily reminder, low risk if the recipient already has wall art
• Shirt — riskier (some people don't wear pet shirts), great for the right person
• Poster / framed print — main wall piece, treat it like art
• Sticker sheet — surprisingly fun, gets used everywhere

One thing people forget

If your pet has passed, this still works — and many of the most meaningful commissions we do are for pets no longer here. Send the photos you have, even if they're not perfect. We'd rather have 5 mediocre photos of a beloved old dog than 1 studio shot of a stranger.

If you're ready

Take a fresh photo today (it'll only take five minutes if you follow the steps above), write a paragraph about what makes them them, and we'll turn that into a portrait.