How to Paint Pet Portraits: A Guide for Beginners

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Pet portraits are beautiful because they help celebrate the pet's life. Pet portraits can help capture today's joyful moments and expressions, or a pet that has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Pet portraits are a special, unique and wonderful way to honor the bond that only the owner, family and pet can understand.

Painting a portrait may seem like a difficult or challenging task at first. It is important to keep in mind that there are many styles of regal pet portraits, from realistic to stylistic, and even anime style. Find the style that most appeals to you and that you are most comfortable with.

How to Paint a Dog (Pet Portrait Instructions for Beginners)

● Gather your materials (see list below).
● Choose a style.
● Paint the background.
● Print a photo of the pet.
● Transfer the photo to canvas.
● Add the finishing touches.

Step 1: Gather supplies

First, you need to get your supplies.

Paints: You can have a variety of paints; tips for acrylics and oils are included in this guide.
Printer: You should also have access to a printer.
Tracing paper: You will also need tracing paper.
Canvas: You will need a canvas or other surface to paint on. A recycled wooden board may work.
Gesso: It is best to treat the surface with gesso first, especially if you are using wood, a porous surface or any type of acrylic paint.
Black marker and soft pencils: You should have a good quality black marker and soft artistic pencils.
Brushes and palette: You will need to mix the colors on a palette (instead of just using the paint from the tube, which can end up being wasteful).

Step 2: Choose a style

Have the final image of your mascot in mind. Think about:

What color is the mascot?

What personality does the mascot have?
Do you want the image to be more abstract, realistic, or a mix of both?
Keep this in mind when creating the background, as you'll want to consider highlights, shadows, and even tones that match your home or the favorite colors of the client who wants their pet portrait.

Step 3: Paint the background

Once you have gathered the materials, you need to decide how to paint the background. This step is easy if you use acrylic paint, as it dries relatively quickly.

If you use oil paint, be aware that it sometimes takes weeks to dry. You can reduce the drying time with oil paint by using drying mediums or linseed oil.

Step 4: Print a photo of the pet.

While the background dries, find the pet's favorite photo. Print the photo in black and white.

Something you can also do is flip the photo horizontally in the editing program. Since we will be transferring the image to the canvas with carbon paper, flipping the image now will ensure that the final image on the canvas is what the eyes naturally see.

Step 5: Transfer the image to the canvas

At this point, you need to outline the photo and transfer it to the canvas.

You can carefully trace the image using tracing paper directly onto the dry canvas or trace the lines, shadows and anything else you want to appear in your personalized pet portraits onto the print itself.

Be sure to use a soft graphite pencil. Pencils that are considered "hard" will not transfer as easily, so keep that in mind.

Next, when you are finished, place the outline "face down" on the canvas and use the end of a paintbrush or hard surface to rub the back of the page. This will transfer the graphite to the dry paint.

You can use masking tape to secure the edges when transferring with this method or transfer with the carbon paper method.

Step 6: Add the finishing touches

At this point, you can use the marker to redraw the pencil to emphasize the lines, or you can use acrylic paint right away if you want to use a less stylized approach.

Add color: color in the lines or color inside the lines. Get creative with color, or use the reference photo you have for more realistic colors.

Let dry: Add finishing touches to the dried paint and, again, let it dry.

Highlight the eyes: You can highlight the eyes in white or create a different color for the eyes to contrast the painting.

About Us

Portrait My Pet is a fun and easy way to have a custom pet portrait created of your best friend. Pets capture our hearts and become a part of our families. We love our pets, but we rarely have their likeness captured in a portrait. Now you can easily create a portrait of your furry friend to hang on your wall or give as a gift to your family members or friends.

Website - https://portrait-my-pet.com/