How it works

How our pet portraits are made

It is not a filter over your photo. Understanding what the model is actually doing explains most of what people are surprised by, in both directions.

6 min readUpdated 9 August 2026

How does a photo become a portrait?

You upload a photo, and the model paints your pet into a chosen scene rather than filtering the original image. Nothing is cut out and pasted. It reads your pet's face, coat and build from the photo and paints a new picture, which is why the result is a painting rather than a photo effect.

This is the difference that explains everything else. A filter can only change the pixels that are already there, so it can never put your dog in a bathtub. A painted portrait can, but it also has to reconstruct every detail from scratch, which is why the fine markings are the part most likely to drift.

A photo of a ginger tabby cat beside the Modern Portrait painting made from it, showing the same orange striping, white muzzle and white chest, with the name Nova painted above the cat — The photo on the left, the portrait painted from it on the right. The striping, the white muzzle and the white chest are read off the photo and painted back, not filtered over it. The open mouth and the painted name are not: both are options chosen before it generates, which is why this cat is smiling and the photo's cat is not.

How close is it to your actual pet?

Close, but stylized rather than exact. Faces, coat colour and build come through clearly. Small markings, precise eye colour and fine patterns can drift, and on a calendar your pet may vary slightly from month to month. If a specific detail matters, tell us and we correct it.

	What to expect
Comes through reliably	The face, the coat colour, the build, the breed shape
Can drift a little	Exact eye colour, small markings, fine patterns, collar details
Varies by design	The scene, the season, the styling. Twelve months are twelve settings
Is not normal	The wrong species, an unrecognisable pet, or a badly broken image

The row that matters

The last one is never something to live with. Wrong species or an unrecognisable pet is our problem to fix, not artistic interpretation.

What makes a photo work?

One clear, well-lit photo where the face and any distinctive markings are visible. Sharp beats artistic: the model can only paint detail it can see. A blurry or dark photo produces a vaguer painting, and no amount of regenerating fixes a photo that never had the detail in it.

There is a longer version of this in how to photograph your pet, which is worth five minutes if you are about to go and take a photo specially.

What can you choose before it generates?

Most portrait styles let you choose before you generate. Old Master offers a backdrop colour and a pose. Bubble Bath offers the tub colour and gold or silver feet. Modern Portrait takes a painted name, a format, an expression and a backdrop. The options appear on each style's own page.

Colour choices on most styles: tub, bedding, backdrop, scooter, swim ring
Pose and expression on Old Master, Modern Portrait and Shore Together
A painted name on Modern Portrait and Big Hug, in a modern or handwritten hand
Accessories on several styles: sunglasses, hats, scarves, party extras
Format on Modern Portrait, which can be tall or wide

Every one of these is chosen before the preview generates, not after, so it is worth reading the options rather than accepting the defaults and regenerating.

Can you see it before you pay?

Yes, and before you pay. The preview is free and watermarked. For posters it is the exact design you will receive, without the watermark and in 4K. For calendars it represents the style and quality, and the twelve delivered months may vary slightly from it.

Regenerating with the same photo tends to produce a similar result, because the input has not changed. If you want a genuinely different outcome, upload a different photo.

Pet portraits

See yours before you pay

The preview is free and watermarked, and trying a different photo costs nothing.

See portraits

What if a detail is wrong?

Tell us. Under the preview, use Edit before checkout: leave a note and our team emails a revised preview in about 48 hours. After buying, email us describing what to adjust, and we correct details like eye colour or missing markings without you starting over.

This is the part people do not expect from a product like this, so it is worth saying plainly. A person looks at these. If the markings on your cat's face are on the wrong side, that gets fixed by hand rather than by rolling the dice again.

Can people be in the portrait?

On some styles, yes. Big Hug, Riviera Together, Poolside Together and Shore Together are built around a person and their pet. Everywhere else the styles expect the pet alone, and face detection may ask you for a different photo. Anyone appearing must be an adult.

On a pet-only style, a person in the photo is not just disallowed, it actively degrades the result. The model tries to paint what it sees, and what it produces is usually anatomically wrong rather than simply cropped.

Common questions

Will my pet look identical in all twelve calendar months?

Very similar, not identical. Each month is generated as its own scene, so there is slight variation between them. It reads as a set of twelve photographs rather than twelve copies of one image.

Can I ask for something the options do not cover?

Yes. Get in touch before or after ordering with what you need and we process the order by hand so the request is respected.

Do leashes and harnesses show up in the portrait?

Leashes and harnesses are left out. Collars and smaller accessories your pet is wearing may still appear, since they read as part of them rather than as equipment.

Is the preview lower quality than what I get?

The preview carries a watermark and is smaller. What you receive is the same artwork at 4K with no watermark.