Commissioned Pet Portraits

The Johnson family, all the animals they ever lived with.

They may be prizewinners or bedraggled street survivors, but no matter—each is precious and fills our lives with joy. And our animal companions were meant to be shared; we can spend hours recounting memorable moments to fellow pet companions, sharing images on social networks, our phones overloaded with photos.

Animals are fascinating and beautiful, and I enjoy the challenge of creating their likeness on paper in whatever medium suits the event best. My cats are the reason I am an artist today—they inspired me to share them with others in the best way I could, and I have spent years developing my skills and talent with their likenesses.

A portrait of your animal companion is different from a photograph; I create a composite portrait from many photos and perhaps a meeting. In doing so, I can remove a background from a scene and add another, include toys or even group animals together in a way they’d never pose. More than a few of the portraits I have created have been memorials to pets who are gone but will never be forgotten. Many have also been portraits of a friend’s or family member’s pet given as a special personalized gift.

And in the end, you have a piece of original artwork.

watercolor portrait of dog and two cats — “Shadow, Casey and Ralph”, watercolor, 2006 © Bernadette.E. Kazmarski

Your pet’s portrait need not be a face forward shot of a classic pose—a good portrait captures the attitude of its subject. It can be a picture of a typical event in your pet’s daily routine, or one of those singular moments you love to tell everyone about. The more interesting, the better it describes your best friend, and the more I enjoy creating it.

Working from your photographs, your custom portrait can include one or more pets and even family members (I do people, too), in pastel, pencil, pen and ink, watercolor or colored pencil. Portraits can be any size or shape (within limitations, of course), and you don’t need to have the perfect picture to get the pose you really want; I usually work from several photographs to create one portrait. And even with a good picture, I usually request a few extra pictures to make sure I can clearly see markings and coloring, and if possible, I like to meet my subjects so that I can get to know their personalities and snap a few more pictures.

"Bandit", pastel, 18" x 14", 2004 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski — “Bandit”, pastel, 18″ x 14″, 2004 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Pictured here are but a few of the portraits I’ve created, and I’ll be glad to tell you their stories and many more.

Read more about my commissioned portraits on my website at Portrait Demonstration, and see some finished portraits at Commissioned Portrait Portfolio.

Download a Brochure

cover of brochure — My Portraits Brochure

My brochure is an 8.5″ x 11″ two-page full-color PDF that half-folds when it’s all printed out, showing examples of portraits with an explanation of my process and basic costs.

Purchase a Gift Certificate

Sample Commissioned Portrait Certificate

I offer gift certificates for portraits in any denomination beginning at $50.00, which is the basic cost of a small monochromatic portrait.

The certificate itself is 8.5″ x 11″ and features a collage of portrait images with the recipient’s and giver’s names, printed on parchment cover stock. The whole thing is packaged in a pocket folder and includes a brochure, a letter from me to the recipient and several business cards.The certificate package can be easily mailed or wrapped as a gift and shipped directly to your recipient.

I can also make it downloadable if you’re in a hurry.

Certificates are good for up to one year after issue.

You can purchase gift certificates here or from Portraits of Animals if you are also purchasing other animal-inspired merchandise.

I prefer to look over the work and price the portrait according to how much work will go into it, as described above, but you can either set a budget or get started by purchasing a certificate for yourself or as a gift.

How to Order

“Certificate A” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 black and white or monochromatic portrait with one subject.
“Certificate B” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 color portrait with one subject.
Choose “A” or “B” depending on whether your portrait is black and white or color.
If your portrait will be larger or have more subjects, add $50 or $100 or more to your certificate value with the drop-down below.

CERTIFICATE A $50.00

Size: 8 x 10
Subjects: One
Color: black and white media such as charcoal, pencil, ink, or monochromatic media such as one color of pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
Background or objects: none but shading or colored paper

CERTIFICATE B $100.00

Size: 8 x 10
Subjects: One
Color: full color media such as pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
Background or objects: none but a color or colored paper

Add to your certificate purchase

You can use the second drop down to add $50.00 or $100.00. For amounts over this we’d probably have a conversation and I can set up a custom certificate for your purchase.

You only need to enter an address if it is different from the address I’ll receive when you order. These are often surprise gifts and need to be shipped away from the home address to make sure they are a surprise.

Subscribe to my e-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter.

Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.