5 More Tips For Pet Portrait Artists

Last week I posted a top 5 tips list for pet portrait artists and quickly realized how incomplete it was and so I decided to ask a couple of my fellow artists to share their ideas.
In the order they were received here are 5 more great tips for pet portrait artists...

From Kathy Weller

#1 " More information is better than not enough.

The last thing you want before starting to work is to realize that you are missing information - - be it the proper spelling of the pet's name, the name of the type of tree or flower that will be integrated into the portrait, the photo of your kitty subject's special collar that needs to appear around her neck. The more info you have up front the better, even if you don't think you will use all of it. Because down the road, you might have an opportunity to add something extra and unexpected into the portrait, and that seemingly minute, superfluous detail stored in your your client kitty file might just prove to be the icing on the proverbial pet portrait cake."

#2 "Treat each customer like gold.

"Word-of-mouth and referrals are HUGE in this business. Besides the fact that you are so happy and thrilled that that this person is paying you for your hard work and unique talents, she will be sure to tell all of her pet-parent friends about her experience with you, be it positive or negative. Think about what great cocktail-party conversation starter her pet portrait experience would be!� Keep that in mind during the tough times.�"
Kathy Weller is a portrait artist and accomplished illustrator. Last year she worked on a sweet and lovely portrait of my girl Pixel.

From Linda O'Neill

#3 "Take great care in packing and shipping your artwork...it shows how much care and effort you put into your business."

#4 " Gladly offer to do some minor revisions once you present the final 
painting to a client. There might be some eye color, coat color,
background details that they would like changed...and it usually means
capturing that extra essence of their dog that means the world to them."

#5 "In addition to that...include something extra when you ship out a painting to a client. Even if it's just a greeting card, it makes them feel unique and special and that you took the trouble to do it. Going that extra mile is what's it's about."


Linda O'Neill is one of my first pet portrait pals and she is a gifted painter. A few years ago she beautifully memorialized my boy Atticus.

The artwork in the screen-shots above are copyrighted by the respective artists.