Home Advice Keeping your Pets near in Retirement

Keeping your Pets near in Retirement

Pets have a real place in your retirement. Even their images will sooth and comfort. Living pups and kittens are known to be therapeutic. But, a portrait of a late pet is a way of memorializing the life and triumphs of a good friend.

According to Kim Campbell Thornton, writing for The Sacramento Bee, “A portrait of a pet is an everlasting tribute to a friend. When an artist captures an animal’s essence, the pleasure a painting brings is immeasurable.”

Without being too sentimental, a nice portrait of the puppy you remember, the award-winning horse you applauded, or the cat with significant personality belongs in your home. A nicely framed,  quality painting has a place wherever you move.

What to look for?

You select your most memorable photograph and order your picture. But, you have some choices.

The artist can draw from one photo or several to create a single image or combine several to satisfy your request. You can even specify the background and size.

Professional artists can turn your favorite pet photograph into an oil painting in just seven to ten days. Using your photo as a model, the master artist can create a fully free-hand oil portrait.

A glicée finish is a mixed-media option. Keeping it simple, the glicée artist prints your photo with special computer printers onto canvas. The master artist treats and textures the finish with real oils to  create depth and highlights.

Or, you can shop for a water color, charcoal, or colored pencil drawing suitable for framing.

How to shop?

Providers who can offer options are always a good choice. And, while pricing is important, quality, service, and interaction make the difference.

But, smart shopping online can take you where you want to find choices and direct connection with the artists who complete your work.

You can pay top dollar to prominent painters with impressive profiles. Perhaps, your friends referred you to their work. But, it you want faster turn around and options on size and framing, you want to shop further.

According to Chris Chen, founder of Instapainting.com, a site where you can get a pet portrait painting, “Instead of housing a few artists in a specific location, we created a platform that lets us draw from a global talent pool of artists and efficiently hand-review hundreds of samples to select only the top artists.”

Smart shopping spends time looking through galleries of work samples. Samples suggest a different pose, background, or composition.

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It considers the framing potential. For example, the final canvas might be delivered rolled in a tube. Instead, you might order a ”gallery wrap” which stretches the canvas across a wood frame. Or, you can order the portrait fully and handsomely framed.

Price will follow the choice of size, of course. So, you should consider what size will add to your painting. Some pets and poses, for example, standout in small images while bigger pets might need a larger size. And, you have to give some thought to the layout on your wall. You need to plan on how much your painting will dominate the decor.

Start with a good pic

Your artist will be working from the photo you email or upload, So, make sure it has quality to start with. Prefer those pictures taken in natural light.

According to lessons at Digital Photography School, choose one with a bright eyes, or catch your pet by surprise so it tilts its head or perks its ears up. And, you might send more than one photo to get the advice of the artist who works on your job.

Living or passed, your pets are treasures. Having them memorialized in a formal portrait in your home brings them home again.

Author’s Bio

Michael F. Carroll

Title: Freelance writer at OutreachMama

Mike Carroll is a freelance contributor to OutreachMama and Youth Noise NJ who helps businesses find their audience online through research, content copy, and white papers. He frequently writes about management, marketing, and sales with customized outreach for digital marketing channels and outreach plans depending on the industry and competition.