10 compelling reasons to commission a hand-drawn pet portrait
There are many reasons why pet portraits are so great, but here are my top 10 reasons to commission one.
Special Companions
Our pets are so special to us. They share our lives providing love, companionship, and loyalty in an uncomplicated way. Their presence can even improve our mental and physical wellbeing. No wonder then, that so many of us want to express how much they mean to us with a hand-drawn pet portrait.
2. Expressive Styles
Pet portraits can be highly stylised or, like mine, super realistic where I draw pretty much every hair and whisker. Either way, they can be even more expressive and impactful than the original photographs.
3. Creative Composition
A good artist can remove the background, replace it with another, or leave it out altogether. They can compose different pets together and correct the colours in a photograph to be more true to life.
4. Quality Materials
Using high quality pencils or paints means the artwork can be even more vivid and life-like than the original photograph. Digital art is very popular and there is the rise of AI art, but nothing quite beats the texture and tones achievable by an artist putting down multiple layers of quality pigment on fine art paper.
5. Lasts a Lifetime
I use archival quality pencils and paper which means the detail and colours of your artwork will remain clear and vibrant for many years to come. For example, my Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour pencils have a fade resistance of over 100 years, meaning that the next generations will be able to enjoy your picture too.
6. Restoration and Re-creation
An experienced pet portrait artist can work from damaged or low quality photos to accurately recreate the subject. We can fill in missing or obscured features, increase the detail and definition of lower resolution pictures, and even add or adjust name tags.
7. Lovingly Crafted
It’s hard to put into words exactly, but a completed pet portrait by a gifted artist has a quality and craftsmanship to it that communicates the importance and value of the subject. It can take weeks to complete a picture, and so the finished artwork is a record of the time, care, and skill that has been taken to create it.
8. Commemorate and Memorialise
When a much loved pet dies it can leave us with a deep sense of loss. While the hole they leave is not easily or ever filled, many find a lovingly crafted pet portrait helps them remember their cherished companion and bring a measure of comfort and joy. In case it’s of any help to you, I’ve highlighted some resources for those grieving the loss of a pet.
9. Great Gifts
Pet portraits make excellent gifts. They are the ultimate thoughtful and personalised present for an animal loving friend or relative. You can even give someone a pet portrait gift voucher so that they can enjoy working with the artist.
10. Pleasure and Privilege
There are many more reasons why pet portraits are so good, but I’ll finish with just one more: they are drawn by artists who really love animals. That’s certainly true in my case and I’m sure most other pet portrait artists feel the same way about their subject matter. Why else spend dozens of hours a week drawing every strand of fur in such minute detail?
Fur is an amazing thing to draw. It’s got such a range of colours and textures: soft, silky, fluffy, curly, short, long, stripy, spotty, but then, contrasting so perfectly with the soft fur, are the shiny eyes: dark and soulful, or bight and colourful. So often it’s the eyes that bring a portrait to life and pets have such beautiful eyes. Then on top of all that there are the cute noses, the expressive ears, and the exploring whiskers.
It’s such a pleasure and a privilege to be able to draw animals for a living and I hope to have the opportunity to create many more beautiful pet portraits in the future. If you’d like to enquire about commissioning me, do please get in touch.