Sirius - Drawing Pet Portraits

Drawing Pet Portraits

Master techniques for capturing your pet's personality in portraits

How a cat's face differs structurally from a dog's, why bird eyes demand different handling than mammals, how fur texture varies and what that means for your mark-making.

The 128-page guide moves through fundamentals systematically, proportion, feature placement, value modeling, then addresses the challenges pet portraitists actually encounter: working from photographs when live subjects won't sit still, managing complex fur patterns, rendering convincing eyes that convey character. Willsher includes multiple complete demonstrations showing her process from initial sketch through finished portrait. Whether you're drawing your own pets or considering portrait commissions, this manual provides the technical foundation and observational strategies that transform reference photos into drawings that look unmistakably like the individual animal.