How to order
My aim is to create magical, characterful and unique hand-drawn pet portraits, using my art and design skills. I specialise in creating custom pet portraits from photos sent to me by the people who love their pets. This isn’t a Photoshop filter or automatic process. I use your photo for reference then hand-draw your pet using a digital drawing pad. Here’s the stages of how I create a typical picture.
Choosing the right reference photo
One of the first steps in the pet portrait painting process is finding a good reference photo. A good, clear photo – or photos – to work from is very important.
You probably have taken a lot of photos of your pet in all kinds of situations. Many pets look fun when playing but most of the time they will look much better when painted sitting up or lying in a comfortable, portrait-like position. Ideally a clear head-and-shoulders digital photo is ideal, especially if you can see bright, clear eyes. It’s usually far better to take the photo from the pet’s eye level rather than looking down at them.
If you have something else in mind or you have a photo that you love and you think it would make a good painting, feel free to send it to me at nic@untitledartwork.co.uk and we can discuss your ideas further.
The best reference photos are high resolution. Please make sure the photos are not too light or dark, or blurry. Don’t worry about the colour too much. That is an easy thing to fix but make sure I know the true colour of the fur.
If you have photos of your pet but you are not sure if they’re good enough, just send them to me via email and I’ll be happy to look at them and let you know if the resolution and detail is enough for me to work with. You can also choose the colour of the background in the picture.
If you have two or more animals and you want a picture with them together, please get in contact so we can chat about this as I do have options for multiple animals. Here are some examples of photos that won’t work:
Selecting your finished artwork
Once your picture is finished, we will email it to you for approval before getting it printed. We use one of the UK’s top printers and frame makers, who use top quality raw materials from the world’s best suppliers, precision manufacturing equipment and employ master craftsmen with years of experience to bring it all together.
The fee for creating your unique, bespoke artwork is £100 (for a single animal) and includes an emailed digital file in low resolution to use on social media plus a fine art quality, unframed 14x14in print. The picture itself is in the centre of the print, leaving a white border. This is sent rolled inside a protective cardboard tube. Contact me for a quote for a picture with more than one animal!
The print is on Hahnemuhle Bamboo 290gsm natural white paper with a smooth surface texture made from 90% bamboo fibres and 10% cotton and guarantees archival standards. With its premium matt coating, Bamboo meets the highest industry standards regarding density, colour gamut, colour graduation and image sharpness while preserving the special touch and feel of genuine art paper.
For an extra special finish, we can offer extras such as wrap-around canvas prints ready to be hung on your wall, or framed prints in a variety of styles. This is instead of the unframed print.
The canvas-effect wrap is a sealed photographic print over a solid 18mm mdf block which sits tight against the wall and is ideal for a modern home.
Canvas wraps come in 16x16in, 20x20in and 16x20in. The wraps are placed in a presentation box which is then put inside a protective box for postage. For a price quote to for airmail orders out of the UK (such as to the USA), please contact me.
For framed prints, the price includes the fee for creating the artwork and the emailed low-resolution digital file for social media use.
Other sizes can be made available, so please contact me for any bespoke orders. Payment is via Paypal and we will send a Paypal invoice. Typically your artwork is finished and sent to you for approval within two weeks of ordering, then your final print arrives in roughly 10 days. If there’ anything else you’d like to know, please email me at nic@untitledartwork.co.uk.
