Cat portraits
A cat portrait from your photograph
Painted in oil from the photo on your phone — including the one where she is half turned and one ear is flattened, which is usually the one that actually looks like her.
Cats are the subject most often ruined by a painter who is good at dogs. A dog has a muzzle that pushes forward and gives the painter something to model; a cat's face is nearly flat, and the likeness sits in the geometry — how far apart the eyes are set, how the nose leather tilts, where the cheek turns into fur. Get those proportions right and a cat appears. Get them approximately right and you have painted a cat, but not this cat.
Nearly every cat is asymmetric. One eye sits a little lower than the other, one ear carries a nick or folds slightly forward, one whisker pad is fuller. Owners read that asymmetry instantly and cannot always name it. A studio that mirrors one half of the face to save time produces a clean, wrong animal. We paint both sides as the photograph shows them, and we will say before you order if the photograph does not show enough of the face to do it. Send the three best frames you have and we will tell you which one is worth painting.
Why a cat's face is harder than a dog's
There is no long nose to foreshorten and no heavy brow to shade, so there is nothing to hide behind. The head is a set of soft planes under short fur, and the drawing has to be right before a single hair goes down. On a three-quarter view the far eye compresses to a narrow shape while the near cheek takes up a third of the face; painters who draw both eyes the same size produce the flat, faintly cross-eyed look of cheap cat art.
The other trap is fur. Cat fur follows the skull closely, so a painter who renders individual hairs all over the head makes it look furry, round and boneless. We build the planes first in thin layers, then add hair only where the coat catches light — the brow, the cheek, the bridge of the nose — so the skull stays under the surface where it belongs.
Pupils, whiskers and the details that give a shortcut away
A cat's pupil changes shape with the light. In a bright photograph it is a vertical slit; at dusk it is nearly round. We paint whatever the photograph shows, because a slit pupil under a bright highlight reads as a stuffed animal and a round pupil in daylight reads as another species. If you send two photographs with different pupils, we take the eye shape from one and keep the rest consistent.
Whiskers are painted last and faked most often. They are thick at the root, they taper, they curve in three dimensions and they break — some short, some bent down, some crossing the muzzle. Drawn as a set of identical white arcs they look like scratches in the varnish. Each one is pulled in a single stroke with a fine rigger, which is slower than drawing them on and looks entirely different at arm's length.
Photographing a cat, including the black ones
Get down to the cat's eye level and use window light from one side. Flash flattens the coat, puts a hard disc in the eye and turns the pupils into two white dots, and there is no honest way to paint around that afterwards. A phone photo taken in daylight with the face filling a third of the frame is enough. Two or three at different angles beat one perfect one, because a single photo cannot tell us what the far side of the head is doing.
Black cats need a specific kind of photograph. Black fur is not black paint — it is ultramarine, burnt umber and a little alizarin, and it only reads as black when something lighter sits beside it. So we want light catching the edge of the head, from a window behind and to one side, against a background that is not also black. A cat shot on a dark sofa with flash becomes a silhouette, and a painting made from it is a guess with good manners.
What it costs
Price is set by canvas size and the number of subjects — not by the occasion, the deadline, or how much detail you ask for. The table below is the same one used on every painting page, so there is no quote to wait for.
| Canvas | Metric | 1 subject | 2 subjects | 3 subjects | 4+ subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | $189 | $259 | — | — |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | $289 | $379 | $459 | — |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | $389 | $499 | $619 | $749 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | $549 | $699 | $849 | $1,029 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | $789 | $1,059 | $1,290 | $1,560 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | $1,090 | $1,449 | $1,749 | $2,090 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | $1,390 | $1,849 | $2,249 | $2,690 |
Shipping is free worldwide. Framing is optional and quoted separately — most customers have the canvas stretched by a local framer for $60–$120.
How it works
Send the photograph
One sharp phone photo is enough. Tell us the deadline, the wall it is going on, and anything that must or must not be in the picture.
See the mock-up within 24 hours
A digital composite at the exact canvas size and crop, so size and composition are settled before any paint is bought. Nothing is charged until you approve it.
Watch it being painted
Three to five weeks in real oil, with two progress photographs. You can raise a concern at either one — that is what they are for.
Approve, then it ships
You see the finished canvas first, with one free round of adjustments. Then it travels rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside.
Real oil, not a print
Hand-painted on cotton canvas, varnished, signed. Brushwork you can see in raking light.
You approve before we paint
A digital mock-up at the exact size and crop, within 24 hours, included in the price.
Numbered certificate
Every painting ships with a signed COA stating artist, medium, size and year.
Free worldwide shipping
Rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured. No minimum, no distance surcharge.
Questions
Questions we actually get
$189 for an 8 × 10 in, $289 for 12 × 16 in, $389 for the 16 × 20 in most people choose, rising to $1,390 for a 36 × 48 in. Each additional cat adds a fixed amount, shown in the table above. Shipping is free worldwide, the price does not change with the deadline, and a second cat is a fixed addition rather than a new negotiation.
Yes, and most of these commissions start that way. What matters is that the eyes are sharp enough to read and the coat is not blown out. Send three or four frames at different angles and we will tell you honestly which one carries the likeness before you pay anything, and which one we would not attempt at all.
It is the one coat colour that needs the right photograph rather than a better camera. Send anything where daylight catches the edge of the head, even if the picture is otherwise poor. If every frame is a silhouette, we will say so instead of inventing fur and charging you for the guess, and you can decide whether to take more.
Yes, from 20 × 24 in upward; below that each head drops under about three inches and the likeness stops carrying across a room. Cats that never sat together are combined from separate photographs with the light direction matched, which is $60–$70 on top for the composite work. They have to read as two animals in one room, not two animals stuck together.
Three to five weeks of painting, then three to five business days in transit. Rush delivery brings the painting to three weeks including the work, for $90. You see a digital mock-up within 24 hours, and nothing is painted until you approve it. The delivery date is given in writing before you order, and we keep it.
Send the photograph of your cat
Tell us the wall and the deadline. You get a fixed price, a size that suits the space and a date we can keep, usually the same day.