A Pet Memorial Painting for Gigi
For this pet memorial, my client and I worked together to create a beautiful garden in this custom memorial portrait for a little Pomeranian dog named Gigi.
When I was first contacted by Gigi’s mom, she had a very speific vision in mind. She wanted me to help bring that vision to life on canvas.
An Angelic Pet Memorial in Oil Paints
The goal for this painting was to capture her much-loved dog friend in an angelic, heavenly setting for her memorial. My client imagined a beautiful garden, butterflies, fluffy clouds and a profusion of flowers, all rendered in the rich style of traditional oil paints.
Ideally, the painting could be based on her favourite photo of Gigi. This one that captured her smile.
Refining the Pet Memorial Vision
When creating custom pet memorials or custom pet portraits, I often start with a digital mockup. These simple sketches help us get on the same page.
The reference material she sent formed a sort of “mood board” for the piece. From there I made a few mock-ups that the final painting could be based on.
Getting Started in Oil on Canvas
Starting with the background and working forward, I started filling in the different elements and sending updates by email.
It’s easy to add more foliage and greenery. But taking anything out of a painting once it’s in is a lot harder, so we went slowly.
At this point, we knew we were almost there! But a last element was needed to tie the foreground and background together and complete the heavenly atmosphere. That would make Gigi’s pet memorial painting complete.
My client had the idea of adding beams of light. We tried it in a digital mockup first, to be safe, and it looked wonderful! Check out the video from my YouTube channel below to watch the beams of light go in.
A Heavenly Pet Memorial Painting
Et Voila!
With beams of sunlight streaming down, surrounded by gold-flecked foliage and butterflies sitting atop a bed of roses, Gigi finally has a truly heavenly garden to rest in.
Learn More
You can see more examples of my custom pet portraits in the Paws by Zann Pet Portrait Art Gallery (or just Dog Paintings or Cat Portraits)
If you have a pet of your own that you’d like to immortalize on canvas, shoot me an email at pawsbyzann@gmail.com.
Or for more art updates, fresh portraits and videos, sign up for my newsletter below. I send out updates with fresh art about twice a month.
Thanks for reading!
Zann
