Beautiful pet portraits from imperfect reference photos

I love it when I get a high resolution reference photo where the pet is in a good pose with great lighting. These commissions are so enjoyable to draw especially when the client wants me to create a large portrait from it. There is another side to being a pet portrait artist, though, that is equally rewarding, and that’s when I need to create a beautifully realistic portrait from a less than perfect photo. When a beloved pet has sadly passed away the owner may only have imperfect photos for me to work from. They may be of low resolution, taken in poor lighting, faded, or some part of the subject might hidden or missing. My challenge, then, is to create a pet portrait that is as good as if I had a perfect reference photo to start with. In this article I’ll share a few recent examples, the challenges they presented and the techniques I used to solve them.

1) Dogs playing on the grass

In the first one, the pose was perfect. The two dogs are playing together on the grass but the resolution of the image is quite low and the blacks and whites are under or over exposed so the detail of the fur hasn’t been captured. There are large areas that are completely white and large areas that are completely black. I was also asked to draw some of the grass, which was an added challenge as there was not much detail visible, plus it was not something I’d done before.

I sketched in an oval of grass around the dogs, which helped them pop out from the page. I used my knowledge of the direction of fur and how it reflects the light to extrapolate from what little information there was in the picture and fill in the missing detail. Here are a couple of before and after swipes plus the final artwork to give you an idea of what detail I added. For the dog on the left the challenge was to reconstruct the detail hidden by the dark shadows, especially on the nose and the side. While there were similar issues with the dog on the right, much more of the detail had been lost in the over exposed whites. You can also see how I had to reconstruct much of the detail of the grass and bring the eyes to life.

2) A kitten surrounded by flowers

In this next example, the reference photo (first image below) was quite low resolution, the kitten was slightly out of focus, and again there were some very black areas with little or no detail. The extra challenge was to draw it surrounded by some plants and flowers. I also wanted to add more brightness and clarity to the eyes.

To surround the kitten with flowers I printed the reference photo out on card, cut it out, and surrounded it with real flowers. When I found an arrangement that looked right I took a photo of it and then digitally overlaid the original reference photo on top of that photo (see the second image below).

The final step was to draw the portrait from this newly created reference photo. (The image on the right below is the final portrait.) Of course, it’s impossible to draw every strand of fur, especially because of the low resolution, so I aimed to give clarity to the impression of realistic fur. I was also able to make the flowers more white, in line with the brief, and bring out the detail in the leaves a little more. The eyes in the final portrait have a lot more life in them too.

Below are some closeups, so you can see the the reference photo (left) and the final drawing (right) a bit more closely. You can now see much more detail in the fur and nose; and the eyes are a lot more crisp and clear too. I added an extra reflection to the left eye as it was looking a little flat and dull. I wanted it to match the shinyness of the other eye. Oh, and I added a few whiskers too, to finish it off.

3) A dog wearing a scarf

In this next commission, the reference photo was of a dog wearing a scarf. The trouble was there was very little detail in the reference photo (first on the left below), plus the colours were not very accurate (they were a little too cartoony and saturated). I can usually recreate an animal’s fur and adjust colours but for a while the scarf stumped me. I searched the internet to try to find the exact scarf in order to get an idea of how the fabric really looked. Google lens is really helpful for this sort of thing but I couldn’t find anything similar enough. I did learn a bit about different types of knitting and weaving though! In the end, I tried a number of AI upscalers and one managed to give just enough extra detail to indicate how the fabric was woven together (see the middle image below). It also added some sharpness to the eyes and made the colours look a little more realistic. The image on the right below shows the completed portrait.

4) A horse munching on some straw

I’ll share one more example of working with imperfect reference photos, this time of a horse (see the image on the left below). I don’t get to draw horses very often but they make excellent portrait subjects. Once again, the resolution was not very good, but there was another problem. In the reference photo the horse was munching on some straw and the client wanted me to remove that and reshape the mouth (horse’s lips move a lot when they eat). I’m less familiar with horse anatomy than that of cats and dogs, but after a little research and work in photoshop I had a new reference photo (see the image below on the right).

There were some patches of black that lacked any detail (especially parts of the ears and neck) so I filled those in as I drew the finished portrait (see below).

Of course there is a limit to what can be done, and with my realistic style its always best to draw from super-sharp high-resolution photos, but one of the best things about being a pet portrait artist is helping bring faded memories, like the one below of Storm, back into crystal clear focus. I’m so pleased with how these turned out and hope they are a source of much joy.

2024 Update: I recently worked with an old faded photo of a much loved pet to create a beautiful gift. You can read more about that process in my blog on the importance of childhood pets. You can also see another restoration in my May 2024 update.