Custom Poodle Portraits, Hand-Painted From Your Photo

A Poodle’s coat is the whole design problem. Curls cannot be painted one by one — a dog painted that way looks like a bath sponge — so we mass the coat as shapes of light and shadow, decide where the light catches the outer edge of each mass, and then draw a handful of individual curls exactly there: the crown of the topknot, the fringe of the ears, the outline against the background.

Colour is subtler than it looks. A white Poodle is painted with warm and cool greys in the shadows so it keeps its volume; a black Poodle needs side light in the photo and is painted with blue-black and umber darks so the curls read as texture; apricots and reds are kept warm and are prone to going orange if the reference is shot in evening light, so we correct from a daylight photo where possible.

The face beneath the coat is fine and long-muzzled, with dark, almond eyes set close. Standard Poodles suit a full standing profile on a landscape canvas — the breed’s outline is elegant and owners of show dogs often want it — while Miniatures and Toys are usually painted as head studies. Tell us the clip you want in the painting, and send photos taken in that clip.