The process…

1) First of all thank you for commissioning a portrait from me. It is a very exciting decision and one which will hopefully give you many years of pleasure.

2) Once you have agreed to the price quoted and a time slot has been arranged for you then there are only a few things you need to do. You need to look out photographs that show your pet to the best of their character. A few good quality photographs are a must. I can only draw what I see and if the photographs are not good quality or pixelated etc then I can only produce the amount of detail that is clear from the photograph. Iphone photos and mobile photographs tend not to be good enough quality. Any compact “point and shoot” camera is good or a “SLR” camera will produce great quality photographs. Lighting also is important and I am happy to look through photograph and choose what works well and what doesn’t. You can email photographs to louise_jarvis82@hotmail.co.uk. I like to receive a good number of pictures (approx five) so I can see colouring and lighting, fur texture and scale. Please only send photographs that capture your animal as you must be happy with the photo I will be drawing from as you will have to look at it for a long time! Once I have looked through the photographs then I will produce a few mock-ups for you and I will email them to you. I tend to do some rough photoshop work and cut out the head and shoulders and place it on different coloured backgrounds. If there is a particular colour you would like then please let me know otherwise I will send a few options for you to look at. I tend to also at this stage send a few mock-ups of the composition framed too in a variety of frames that I think will complement the portrait. These are just to let you see if you like the composition and it also helps to let you see how the portrait could look finished and framed. Obviously at this stage it is only a photoshop’d photograph and the portrait will look much nicer

3) Once you have approved your mock ups and given me a rough idea of the background colour you would like etc then I would ask for a deposit of £50 for cat and dog portraits and £75 for horse portraits. This confirms the time slot and your commission. This can be sent by cheque or made by bank transfer. I will send you the details via email.