Painting your pet’s portrait can be a fun task as well as tricky. Your love for your pet is a special bonding and there’s nothing more beautiful than having them painted on canvas. It is not easy to capture their expressions on a canvas especially if you are doing a live painting since they keep moving and cannot sit in one position for too long. However, if it is a painting done from a reference photo, it won’t be that big a burden for you. In this article we share with you some easy hacks that will help you with your pet painting the next time you plan to do one.
1. Wait Till You See your Pet Smiling
It is cute when you see your pet smiling, especially when you take them out in a park or play with them at home itself. Wait for moments like these to click a nice picture of them that can be used as a reference photo for your pet painting. Wait for the moment when you see them jumping in playful nature or smiling big – a painting with good expression can give a realistic touch to your painting and make it look exceptionally striking when you hang it on the wall.
2. Know How To Portray The Eyes Well
The trick to acing a portrait is knowing how to highlight facial features such as eyes, nose and mouth. Amongst the three, eyes are the most important. The eyes can tell you about the mood and expressions of your pet. So it is advisable to make them look bright, shiny, interactive and as real as possible.
3. Highlight Their Distinctive Features
Your pet might have bright eyes, or large ears or a cute nose – you have to realise and know how to highlight them in the right way. You could even do a fun shot of them when they are sleeping, or take a good reference photo when they are making funny and unique expressions.
4. Be Ready With Your Camera
When you spend time with your pet next, be ready with the camera. You have to be ready to capture all their expressions and once you have good enough pictures of all their expressions, you could pick the best one from them as a reference photo for your next pet painting. These pictures could also be a good way to keep a memory album for yourself later on.
5. Train Your Dog To Look At The Camera
Making your pet how to sit still is a task of its own but what is even more important is that you train them how to look towards the camera. This will need a lot of training on your part as well. Over the period of time, may be when you use the word “camera” in front of them they will look immediately just as they run towards you when you call their name.
6. Experiment With Your Creativity
The background of your painting is really important. See how the background and the colour combination in your painting can highlight your pet in the painting. You need to have good idea about angles and art compositions. Ensure that you know which are going to be the focal points of your painting. You could even change their features a little. For example, if the colour of their eyes is black, you could add a hint of brown to it to make them look brighter. So in a nutshell, experiment with your creativity!
These hacks to doing a pet painting can come handy for you. You might have thought about them but never paid heed, but now you should as they can really add great value to your pet painting and accentuate their beautiful features of your pet. Experiment with colours and shadows. You can also add a theme to the painting such as make it look retro or give a minimal touch to it to keep it simple. The ideas are immense it depends on you how you bring out the best on canvas. Happy Painting!
