Pet portraits

Soggybiscuit · November 2019

So, I'm starting early in trying to find a 4th year anniversary gift for my wife. We've been following the 'traditional' gift schedule, and I would like to continue that. This year, the gift is linen/silk. So I got a bright idea! Ill get a painted pet portrait of the 2 dachshunds we have, but I'm having trouble finding something I'm satisfied with.

I figure a painting on canvas will satisfy the 'linen' requirement.

Has anyone here gotten a pet portrait done, and if so, where did you get and were the results good?

Obviously, I have to provide pictures:

This is Ruthie (named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg)

This is Sandie (named after Sandra Day O'Connor)

And this is what they do, most of the time (ie prevent me from getting stuff done)

Cambiata · November 2019

Myself I would probably go to Etsy for something like this and look at different people's work until I found one that suited me.
That said, I love looking at needle felted portraits, do you think something like this might more suit your needs?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/690482663/dog-portrait-sculpture-in-frame-needle?ref=shop_home_active_14&frs=1
Same artist, but full pet:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/451878356/needle-felted-dog-bruno-jura-hound?ref=shop_home_active_56&frs=1

Taya · November 2019

Another option is /r/HungryArtists. Post a description of what you want and artists who are interested will usually respond with their portfolio so you can see if they are what you're looking for.

tynic · November 2019

(or the artists forum right here)

Iruka · November 2019

How much time have you given yourself?
If you have any local small galleries you can drop in on, starting there might open up options.
There's a real benefit to seeing someones work in person when you are shopping for paintings instead of prints. You might have trouble telling quality on etsy when shopping for this kind of thing. The thumbnails are often photoshopped examples and many of the businesses you see are actually combining the photos digitally, printing the photo on canvas, and then just adding a layer of oil touches to it to give it a more 3d and hand painted look. Some places are honest about it, like this:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/673958206/portrait-from-photopainting-from?ref=related-3&pro=1&frs=1

But some people may not be.
Note, you might not care about this, and onlookers will likely not notice. Painting on top of the photo has a ton of benefits in terms of holding on to the accuracy. If you guys aren't art snobs, feel free to ignore me. I dont want to look down on the artists who make a buck doing this, its quick and efficient. For the sake of advice though, I'm gonna let my art school snobbery show and just note what I'd think about.
- I've seen canvases where they merely put a gloss medium over the whole thing, paint out any background elements with a soft color, put a few strokes into the photo to say it was painted and call it a day. The problem here is, they are hoping you will think that the strokes in the clear gloss medium are paint strokes on the figure, they aren't and the effect is cheap. Sometimes they'll run the photo through a filter first to make it look a little more painterly, its also kinda cheap.
- You want to find examples of actual paintings on the etsy and not photoshopped in examples. You should try to get any sense of how the painting holds up in light, and how their actual brush work looks. Do they have enough skill to get rid of a background element while keeping everything integrated?
- This process will rely on you taking good reference of your dogs. Take photos that are ideal as possible. Up your dog photo rate and just try and capture as close to what you want. the less invention the artist has to do here, the easier it will be to go with whatever artist and get alright results.

Soggybiscuit · November 2019

Iruka wrote: »

How much time have you given yourself?
If you have any local small galleries you can drop in on, starting there might open up options.
There's a real benefit to seeing someones work in person when you are shopping for paintings instead of prints. You might have trouble telling quality on etsy when shopping for this kind of thing. The thumbnails are often photoshopped examples and many of the businesses you see are actually combining the photos digitally, printing the photo on canvas, and then just adding a layer of oil touches to it to give it a more 3d and hand painted look. Some places are honest about it, like this:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/673958206/portrait-from-photopainting-from?ref=related-3&pro=1&frs=1
But some people may not be.
Note, you might not care about this, and onlookers will likely not notice. Painting on top of the photo has a ton of benefits in terms of holding on to the accuracy. If you guys aren't art snobs, feel free to ignore me. I dont want to look down on the artists who make a buck doing this, its quick and efficient. For the sake of advice though, I'm gonna let my art school snobbery show and just note what I'd think about.
- I've seen canvases where they merely put a gloss medium over the whole thing, paint out any background elements with a soft color, put a few strokes into the photo to say it was painted and call it a day. The problem here is, they are hoping you will think that the strokes in the clear gloss medium are paint strokes on the figure, they aren't and the effect is cheap. Sometimes they'll run the photo through a filter first to make it look a little more painterly, its also kinda cheap.
- You want to find examples of actual paintings on the etsy and not photoshopped in examples. You should try to get any sense of how the painting holds up in light, and how their actual brush work looks. Do they have enough skill to get rid of a background element while keeping everything integrated?
- This process will rely on you taking good reference of your dogs. Take photos that are ideal as possible. Up your dog photo rate and just try and capture as close to what you want. the less invention the artist has to do here, the easier it will be to go with whatever artist and get alright results.

I've got about a month. Unfortunately, our anniversary is 3 days after Christmas, so I need to have it before Christmas to have it on our anniversary.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I talked to my wife about this as this is a large gift that's going to take a while to get; also as we also have to get the right pictures as well. We're not super artsy, that being said, we would like something that's going to hold up for a while. I'll have more time to discuss stuff over the holiday here. Thanks again everyone!

Ataxrxes · December 2019

You might also check out some of your local tattoo artist's portfolios online. Many of them specialize in pets and portraits and I know of some in my local area that will also do commissions for artwork that is not actually tattooed on you.

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