Perfecting Pet Portraits: How to Make the Most of Your Reference Photos
Portrait of Gus, completed on Clairefontaine Pastelmat for Christmas 2023. The background was done using pastel pencils and Gus was rendered with colored pencils. I saw the reference photo on the recipient’s Facebook page, and I scooped it up!
I enjoy creating pet portraits for people. I don’t make much money from it, but I love animals so much that I enjoy drawing them. It is also fulfilling to immortalize a furry family member for someone.
That said, it can be stressful if you don’t get a good reference photograph to work from.
In this blog, I will address how to get a good reference photograph if at all possible, and provide some options for what to do if you get a less-than-desirable picture to work from.
High-Quality Reference Photos Are Unicorns
If you are a commission artist, specifically for pets, you already know how important it is to get a good reference photograph. Obtaining a stunner photo provides you with all of the information you need to create a masterpiece.
My idea and another person’s idea of a good-quality photograph may vary. I’ll start this article by listing what I think are good attributes to look for when capturing a pet with your camera or sifting through available photographs. These three items are very important to me, and if I can’t at least get a photograph that exhibits 2 out of the 3, I will probably pass on the commission. If you disagree with me or have other nonnegotiables, let me know what you think by commenting at the end of this blog.
Here are my must-haves:
Eye-level- The photograph was taken at the animal's eye level. Sometimes it’s cute to draw a portrait from the perspective of looking down on the pet, but mostly, I avoid that view. It’s an odd vantage point, and it can make certain parts of the pet’s face look proportionally larger (like the nose). Also, converting a photograph taken from this viewpoint to an eye-level portrait would be next to impossible for me.
Good lighting—A picture taken in bad lighting is also hard to improve. Insufficient or too much light can cause this. A photo taken in either instance will minimize detail you might otherwise be able to see in good lighting.
I tend to prefer pictures taken outside with natural light, but I have been able to create pieces from indoor photos with good lighting such as the portrait of Gus above. One of my favorite artists, Emma Colbert, has painted several fantastic portraits of pets on couches. If you want to use or take an indoor photograph, get one where the animal is near a window or some natural light. Indoor lighting tends to cast a yellowish hue due to the lightbulbs, which is not optimal, especially when you are trying to mimic fur color.
Resolution- A photograph taken at good resolution is very valuable to an artist. There is no such thing as too much detail. You can always blur out details so that you don’t get lost in the weeds (if you are a detail pig like me), but you cannot make it up if it’s not there in the first place.
Stand Your Ground Or You May Be Sorry
Before I get into what you can do about less-than-perfect reference photographs, I want to tell you what I have learned the hard way. If you can’t get a photograph that you believe will work, don’t take the commission. It is too stressful and the likelihood that you and your client won’t be pleased with the final portrait will be high.
The only time I may not take this advice is when I am commissioned to create a portrait of a pet that has gone over the rainbow bridge. In that case, I will do my best to use what is available because I am an animal softie, and I get how awful it is to lose a furry family member. Later I’ll show you an example of what I did when I ran into this situation to remedy a poor photograph.
When it comes to living pets, remember that non-artists may not have an idea of what might be a helpful reference photograph. The best case scenario is if your client lives near you, offer to take a picture yourself.
If that is not an option, try and gently guide the client to get a great shot. I wrote a blog a bit ago that details some ideas on getting a good reference photo. I’ll list it below. You could use my ideas, create a list of your suggestions for clients, or reference this blog if you find it useful:
One more thought about clients and reference photographs- frequently when I get a commission it is from someone who wants me to draw a pet portrait for someone else. The client will want to surprise the pet owner with a portrait as a gift. However, due to the secrecy, it can be difficult to get a good-quality reference picture. You can’t ask the gift recipient for a great photo of their pet or it would ruin the surprise!
In this situation, I recommend you scan the person’s social media, if possible, for a good picture. That is how I found Gus’ picture. His mom posted it on Facebook :) If that doesn’t work, you may want to suggest that the client buy a portrait certificate instead of a completed piece. That way you could work directly with the pet owner to find a photograph that you both like.
Moving on I will take a look at some different situations that I have encountered and how I went about creating a portrait anyway. My hope for this blog is that you will find something that will help you in your pet portrait pursuits.
Situation #1 Poor Reference Photos and Ugly Background
I changed Nellie’s background because it was ugly in the reference photograph. I completed this piece using Unison soft pastels on Clairefontaine Pastelmat.
This is probably the most common thing I do to improve my reference photographs. If you know me, then you know I am a sucker for a background. I have drawn a few pet portraits on plain colored backgrounds or no background before, but I’d rather place the animal in a specific location. I think this can help to create a painting that tells a story. At the very least, I believe it is more pleasing to the eye.
Here is how I tackled challenges when creating the portrait above. Her name is Nellie, and she is an Australian shepherd. This is the granddog of a former boss, and I was also lucky enough to live near this adorable animal so I could take photographs of her. I wanted to do that because the photos he had given me were not good. They ranged from having poor lighting, being too far away, not being aesthetically pleasing, to all of the above.
After taking my own photographs, I decided I wanted to use one picture of Nellie for her portrait, but I didn’t like the background where she was posing (photograph on the left). I wanted to use the background from another picture I took of her where she was lying down in the grass.
To remedy this I photoshopped the Nellie from the left onto the new background. Then I blurred out the grass using the blur tool starting from about one-quarter of the way up from the bottom. I like to do that to minimize drawing blades of grass, which I find painful and monotonous. Then I used an artistic license because I didn’t want to draw dirt patches or leaves. Superimposing Nellie on this background at least gave me an idea of how to proceed. I don’t about you, but I don’t like making up things from my brain. It helps me to have something to use as a guide.
You can see the side-by-side comparison below.
One more note about this photograph is that it was washed out due to the time of day I took it. I was invited to a party where Nellie was, so I had to be sneaky and take the picture then. Otherwise, I would have preferred to take it in the morning or evening. Mid-day photographs can wash out the color and create a heavy shadow. To remedy mimicking the lack of color in the portrait, I used other photos of her to try and capture her unique coloring. Which was tough!
Nellie on a dirt road versus Nellie on grass.
Situation #2 Pet Over the Rainbow Bridge and Poor Background
Jackson, a beautiful boxer, sitting on a background where he never was ;) I completed Jackson using Polychromos colored pencils on Clairefontaine Pastelmat.
This is how I created a portrait for a dearly departed dog, named Jackson. Jackson died quite a while ago, maybe 15 years ago. As a result, the only photographs the owner had were hard copies.
Scanned in image of Jackson.
You can see that the photograph is not fabulous. What is a girl to do?
Well, I scanned in the hard copy and played with the lighting as best I could. The result of that is above, which still isn’t fantastic. If the pet was still alive, I’d never take on a challenge like this, but like I said… I am a dog softie so I tried anyway.
I had to Google boxer pictures to fill in gaps that I couldn’t see on the reference photograph. For example, his eyes are so dark in the reference, I needed to see pictures of boxers online to be able to correctly render their shape. The downside of this trick is that you aren’t capturing the actual animal’s eyes, but in this case, there’s only so much you can do.
I also removed his orange vest. I don’t usually draw things like harnesses or vests on dogs, because it’s distracting for no reason. Sometimes I like to draw collars, however. In Jackson’s case, it adds a nice pop of red. I also love when you can see the pet’s name on a tag dangling from a collar. I think that’s very sweet. But I digress.
Back to this reference, I wasn’t wild about the background. I found one I preferred on iStock photos. I searched for “dog on grass” or some such. I would post the picture I used, but I have no idea where it is now.
When searching for an alternate background, I look for ones with a blurred-out background. I want the dog to be the center of attention and I don’t want to spend 20 hours on a background if I can help it.
You have two options for superimposing your subject on a new background. One would be using Photoshop, which I did with Nellie in the first situation. I will be honest with you- I am not great at using Photoshop. I have had it for a couple of years, and I still have to Google everything I want to do, and I’m still awful at it.
The second option is going old school, which is what I did for this piece (I drew this piece a year or two before the Nellie piece). Instead of taking the time to figure out how to digitally superimpose Jackson onto the new background, I used my printer and scissors. I printed one copy of the image above, at the size I wanted to draw him. Then I printed out the iStock background. I cut Jackson out and taped him on the paper.
Situation #3 Poor Photograph and Poor Background
I had to make do with a lackluster photograph for Harley. The background was grassy and my client wanted a colored background. I used PanPastels for the background and Polychromos for Harley. Completed on Clairefontaine Pastelmat.
This situation is my least favorite type of situation. Not because of the fabulous client, but because of the photographs I had to work from. I had a repeat client wanting a Christmas present for her son. She had purchased another pet portrait of his other dog a Christmas or two before this one.
Because the client wanted the piece to be a surprise, I got lackluster photographs that didn’t show much detail, although he exhibited a cute- about-to-bark face in this picture. I cannot find the original reference photo or I would show you how it didn’t have enough information about this sweet creature for me to draw him properly. Also, this photograph was looking down at the dog, which is not my favorite perspective. It is no fault of the client. It is purely my own. People who aren’t artists don’t understand that reference photographs can be limiting factors to creating great art. It is our job to help them understand that, and I failed to do that.
I took the piece on anyway, but I know I could have done a better job if I had worked with her son directly to obtain a better photograph. The client seemed to be happy with the piece, but I have a nagging feeling about it still.
Also, I wanted to mention that you can use the color of the paper as your background or use Pan Pastels to create a blotchy background. It is another option if you have an ugly background or don’t want to draw one. It’s not my favorite thing to do, and I’m not the best at it, but I have seen other artists do a fantastic job with colored backgrounds.
I recently took the background out of a picture when I drew my dog, Lakota. In the photo, he was on my front porch with tan siding and the front door behind him. I chose to paint a blue background instead. It was a headshot and I think it turned out pretty good.
As another segue, don’t forget to consider headshots if you have a good photo reference for that style. Play around with cropping to see if that would be a good option. I take tons of pictures of my dogs for this reason. If you are an animal lover, you get it :) See that drawing below.
My beautiful boy, Lakota. Such a regal creature!
Situation #4 Alot Going On In The Background
Two grand daughters and their horse. Completed with Polychromos and Caran d’Ache Luminance on Clairefontaine Pastelmat. The background was completed with PanPastels and Pitt and Stabilo pastel pencils.
Reference photgraph.
This photograph was fantastic. I like the strong light creating shadows and the little girls’ happy faces and colorful outfits. The only thing I did differently for this photograph was remove the barn in the background. I don’t think it would have detracted from the subjects. I think it would have been neat to have the perspective aspect of the barn in the background, but I didn’t want to take the time to add all of that since it wasn’t necessary. I included this piece in the article to remind you to feel free to remove things from backgrounds. Again, something I have learned the hard way.
For example- see the pet portrait I did below. The dog was sitting on a wagon in the reference photo. I smartly removed the red from the wagon as it would have been distracting. But I did not remove the wheel shadow, which is! Note the unnecessary circular feature at the bottom left corner of the piece. Let my hindsight benefit you. Don’t be afraid to remove what isn’t necessary.
This is an earlier work done in mostly Prismacolor colored pencils on Strathmore colored pencil paper. Oh, that wheel shadow still bothers me. Doh!
Situation #5 Oh My Heavens, That’s A Lot of Vegetation!
Original reference photograph of Charlie.
If you follow me on Instagram, you have seen me complain about drawing grass and/or vegetation. It is hard! It is tedious! If you like to punish yourself and draw it anyway, there is something you can do to make it more bearable. I briefly mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating. Blur at least some of it out!
You can use a Gaussian blur in Photoshop or you can squint your eyes (bonus, that’s free!). There might be a way to do it on an open source free software as well. You could Google that if you want to figure that out.
I did this piece at the beginning of my portrait career. I believe I used a free trial of Photoshop to blur the upper three-fourths or so of the picture. For some reason, I also used different colors of green, although I don’t think it’s a bad thing. The final piece is below.
Charlie, sitting on so much creeping ivy! I used Prismacolor colored pencils on Strathmore Colored Pencil paper, series 400 for this piece. The background still took me forever, but less time than if I had drawn everything in focus.
Closing Thoughts- Summary of Tips
In summary, I’ll provide a list of the tips that I think are most important.
If at all possible, get a fantastic photo from the start. I can’t explain to you the feeling I get when I have a unicorn reference photograph. It relieves pressure and makes me feel excited to create the portrait. I have a portrait with a beautiful reference photograph coming up, and I can’t wait to tackle it! When I get a bad reference, I wake up in the middle of the night trying to figure out how I’m going to make it work. I’m not kidding.
If you take your own reference photo, use the portrait setting on your phone. This creates a blurred background and your reference photo will be focused on the subject and ready to roll. It’s a fantastic feature!
If you have to use a photograph that doesn’t show the most detail for a deceased pet or some other circumstance, don’t lose heart. I think I did a decent job with Jackson. You don’t need to show every hair on an animal, and I don’t believe that looks realistic anyway. Do what you can with the software on your phone or Photoshop to increase the lighting, contrast, or colors and concentrate on drawing the shapes. Then look up a similar breed online to fill in any gaps.
I have an art buddy who says there is AI software to improve a reference photograph. I have never done this, but I will look into it in the future! Let me know in the comments below if you have tried that and what happened when you did.
If you like to draw backgrounds to add context to your pet portraits, don’t be afraid to put the subject on a new background if the one you have is blah. Just remember to consider where the light is coming from in the new background to make it match where the light falls on your animal.
Create a plain color background or render the animal without a background at all. Sometimes I like the look of a lighter-colored animal on white paper. You can create lost edges, and it can look beautiful in its simplicity. Also, be sure to check out pet portrait masters and see how they handle this effect. It can be very inspiring!
I hope that this article was helpful. Let me know if you have any other tips that you would give! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
