Do you show your reference photos with your pet portraits on your website or social media? I have been updating our website this week and overhauling one of our most important pages. It is a page that should be one of the first pages prospective clients look at. It dawned on me while updating, that I could write a blog post for our arty readers about why sharing both portrait and reference photo is crucial for us as pet portrait artists.
We would like to think our page demonstrates the accuracy we put into each pet portrait and shows our ability to capture the pets true likeness. I’m not certain how many clients view our Pet Portraits Artwork to Photo Comparison page. However we are hoping by updating with more paintings and drawings, it will be a much more visited page.
We have always shown reference photos with our portraits in our galleries for many years. However it’s only recently, within the last couple of years, that we made a dedicated page for it. We have chosen a few portraits and explanations to go along side, discussing the decisions behind any differences made from the reference photo to the artwork. More about that later!
Comparing Both Portrait and Reference Photo
When I was studying at my first art college, I drew an Owl in my sketchbook from a photo. It was for our weekend sketchbook drawing task. I loved it. I enjoyed every minute of the drawing. Me and pencil drawings just went together like birds of a feather!
I painstakingly copied the photo and I felt made an accurate representation of that owl. Well …. as much as a 19 year old could at that point in my career. However my art college tutor, held it up in front of the class and said, who did this?? This is not sketching, never, ever draw from photos in your sketchbook. Embarrassed and forlorn, I asked myself how was I to ever draw an owl otherwise? I could have visited an owl sanctuary, although not easy to find one. And I wasn’t going to make it up! If I did it would probably look like some crazy half cat, half owl caricature.
Looking back I think there was some validity to my tutors stance, however I feel a better response would have been, don’t only draw from photos. My advice would be to draw from everything and anything you can get your hands on. Drawing from life I feel is very important where possible, you can derive so much more information from seeing the whole scene or object in front of you. As it happens though, Nicholas and I have based our whole career around drawing and painting from photographic reference. its the only practical way to do what we do.
The Significance of Showing Reference Photos
Our job as pet portrait artists is quite a niche one. Specifically for Nicholas and myself for our artwork, we are advertising to clients our ability to create a portrait of their pet that ‘captures’ their pet. Not just any breed of dog, not just any pet, but specifically their pet. Our aim is to portray in oils or pencil, their pet accurately and realistically with some amount of flare, artistic expression and creativity mixed in. For our prospective clients viewing our artwork alongside the reference photos is invaluable. Otherwise, how do they know we can do our job correctly?
As a side note, we are also hoping it guides prospective clients in the importance of providing us with good quality reference photos for their portraits. The page illustrates how important it is to take plenty of photos of your pet throughout their lives. It might also allow prospective clients to have an idea of what their pet might look like in a portrait, if we were given the opportunity to create a painting or drawing for them.
Why All This Matters To Us
We have genuinely always felt that it is important to provide the photos that we work from, so that clients can get a feel of the pet we portrayed. Our mission, the whole aim of our job, is to create artwork that not only resembles your pet but also resonates with the emotions and memories you have of your pet. Our photo comparison page I hope will become an integral part of our website and we hope that prospective clients have a deeper understanding of the final portrait from seeing the photos of each pet.
Purposeful Differences Between Photo and Artwork
Of course there are times where there have to be differences between the photo and the artwork. This is why sharing both portrait and reference photo is crucial for us as pet portrait artists. It allows us to explain what we have done and why we have done it, to prospective clients. Often clients will ask us to lessen grey hairs, remove collars, alter the pets colouring, paint a dog with a dry coat from a wet coat photo. Also add ears, tails, paws, take one head and put it on another body, amalgamate photos for pets in scenic backgrounds. Even flip the photo! We always have one photo that we use as the basis of the portrait for the pet. This is how we truly capture that particular pet, however there is often more at play as you can see from the painting below.
The portrait of Agarn below was made up of three photos. Nicholas’s intention and task was to create an atmosphere of warmth and quietness, and reflect the lovely surroundings that Agarn enjoyed. This was Agarn’s favourite place to rest, on this rug and in this position by the fire. Of course with his trusty tennis ball by his side, the colour of which was changed to reflect the general scene. Nicholas moved the tennis ball slightly so that it allowed full focus on Agarn’s face. He used one photo as the main setting and another for the lit fire and rug. We hope that this painting is displayed in this room now that Agarn has passed away. A memory his family and this room will remember for a lifetime.
Artistic Flare
Then of course there is artistic flare. We are not machines. We are human. Nicholas and I are creative souls and although we want the portraits to look 100% like the pets, we also want to create a piece of artwork to be admired and proud of. We strive to elevate the photo into artwork.
For us, our goal is to introduce an artistic flare and our style of drawing and painting, all whilst retaining the realism within the piece. This also brings up The Importance of Light and Shade. We are sticklers for light and shade and you can read my blog post on the very subject. For us, we try to create the light and dark tones in the right places and you should be able to see this by looking at the photos and comparing them to our artwork. The fundamentals that need to be right. So going back to what my tutor alluded to all those years ago. Learn to draw properly and it will show through in any other artwork you wish to create.
To sum up why sharing both portrait and reference photos is crucial for us as pet portrait artists…
Of course there are many different artists out there, many different style of paintings and drawings. There are an abundance of pet portrait artists these days who create portraits in different ways to us. We respect that. It’s just for us, we want to create the ultimate paintings and drawings for our clients. Spend as much time on them as is needed, make them the best artwork we possibly can. No cutting corners, no rushing and keeping as close to the fundamentals of the photo as possible. Hopefully by viewing our updated webpage you can see we have done our job to the best of our abilities for our clients.
We hope that you have enjoyed reading why sharing both portrait and reference photo is crucial for us as pet portrait artists. Please feel free to comment below. We always love hearing from our readers!
Are you enjoying our blog? Why not sign up to our Melanie’s Monthly News, which comes right into your inbox each month! You can sign up at the bottom of our website or at the top of the blog. Please don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel too. You are more than welcome to comment below, we love hearing from our readers!