If you want to treat yourself with the ultimate dog lover gift, consider a pet portrait of your beloved animal. It’s a great keepsake and a beautiful piece of artwork to display in your home. The biggest challenge won’t be deciding to have a dog portrait made but choosing the right background and look for the finished dog painting.

Choose High Quality Photos

First, you need to choose a photograph of your pet that you would want captured on canvas and displayed in your home. That’s probably going to be a huge challenge. Considering almost any photograph will work that can make this even more challenging.

The photo you do choose should be one that can be submitted in its highest quality form possible. That way the finished dog lover gift is going to look its best. Even if you’re not sure how best to capture your photographs in digital form, you can always go to copy companies which can usually provide scanning services for a small fee.

People or Pets to Include

Another tough decision is who to include in the pet portrait. Some families may want a group photo of all of their dogs and cats on one canvas. Others may want individual cat and dog portraits. Other families will want to include their children and maybe even themselves in the portrait. You can decide who to include in the image but keep your budget and your available wall space in min

Background

Although the photos you choose to submit will already have their own backgrounds, you won’t have to stick to those limitations. Remember this is art so creativity is always allowed. Maybe you want to have an oil painting of you dog riding on a yacht or sitting in a meadow. You might want him or her to appear in a background from one of your other photos. The choice is yours but keep in mind the tone you want for the finished product.

Pick the Correct Orientation

Your dog portrait is going to look its best if you choose the correct orientation. That means whether you want the finished oil painting to be in landscape or portrait orientation. While the final choice is yours, you might want to experiment by changing the view of your photo on your computer before sending it off.

The orientation you choose will also determine how this dog gift can be hung on your wall. Landscape is going to require a wider spot. While a portrait orientation for your dog lover gift will need a taller space.