How a Chocolate Lab Oil Painting Gets Made

A Chocolate Lab Oil Painting in 4 Steps Coco’s dog-mom wanted a custom oil painting of her dog, so she reached out to me with a few photos. In this post, I’ll walk you through the process we went through to turn her pet portrait idea into a beautiful, polished chocolate lab oil painting! Step […]
Pet Art: Simple Guide to 3 Types of Portrait Lighting



The Importance of Lighting in Pet Art When you buy a pet portrait (or any portrait art) probably the most important thing is that it does a good job of looking like the animal or person in question. Because that’s the whole point, right? But a close second is how you feel when you look […]
A Delightful Dog Portrait Painting with Popping Pink Glasses



See this colourful dog portrait come together in images.
Pet Portraits from Photos (Before and After)



Making Pet Portraits from Photos I paint pet portraits from photos, using one or more of my clients’ favourite pics to start off. The “or more” part usually comes in when the piece is a gift or memorial. Getting a perfect reference photo isn’t as easy as grabbing your phone and your dog and heading […]
How to Take the Perfect Reference Photo for a Pet Portrait Painting



Some photos look great on your phone, but look terrible on the wall. Why? In this post, we’ll look at what makes a great reference photo, and why. In my experience, there are really three things: 1. Lighting: Your pet is lit by natural daylight 2. Image Quality/Size: The photo has enough detail 3. (Optional) […]
7 Steps to Painting Beautiful Pet Portraits from Small, Partial, or Poorly Lit Photos



Professional Pet Artist Zann Hemphill Shares Tips on Getting Good Art from Bad Photos It’s very important to me as a pet portrait artist that everyone who commissions work comes away with a painting they feel is not only beautiful, but captures their pet perfectly. The purpose of this article is to show how photos […]