Watercolour is the lightest register we offer. Where the oil portrait is warm and weighted, a watercolour pet portrait is airy: translucent washes laid over each other, edges that bleed softly where two colours meet, and the white of the paper left bare to do the highlights. It reads as a watercolour rather than as a photograph, which is the whole point of asking for it.
A watercolour portrait for Christmas
Watercolour is the lightest of the styles to give: the washes are soft, the edges loose, and nothing about it looks formal. It suits a pet who is still curled up on the sofa on Christmas morning as much as one being remembered. Upload the photograph, look at the free watermarked preview, and accept it only if it looks like them. It is made to order, so allow 4-9 working days for UK delivery and leave some margin.
What the watercolour looks like
A warm muted palette, luminous white-paper highlights, visible paper texture, and a calm and open feel around the subject. The face stays the sharpest thing in the picture; the washes loosen as they move away from it, which is how the medium behaves on a real sheet. No hard outlines, no cartoon simplification, no costume.
Watercolour or oil, which to pick
Both are made from the same photograph and cost the same. The difference is what the room does with them.
- Watercolour suits a pale wall and a bright room. It sits lightly, and it flatters a pet with plenty of white or cream in their coat, because the paper does that work.
- Oil holds a darker room better and carries more weight at a distance. It flatters a dark or richly coloured coat, and it is the more traditional object of the two. See the oil portrait.
If you cannot decide, you do not have to guess. The preview is free and you can render both.
How it works, plainly
Upload one clear photograph of them. It is made in the watercolour style. Made by AI from your photo. You see a free watermarked preview before you pay, and nothing prints until you approve it. The preview needs a verified email address, and you can make three a day. When you order, the portrait is used exactly as selected, without its watermark and printed to order.
We say that plainly because the alternative is worth knowing about. A commissioned watercolour from a working painter costs a great deal more than this and takes months rather than days, and it is a different thing to own. This is the fast, considered version: minutes rather than months, a fraction of the price, and you see it before you decide.
Sizes and prices
- Digital download, sent as a file
- A3 print on 250gsm uncoated off-white archival paper
- Canvas, 30x40cm, on a 2cm FSC wood stretcher
- Canvas, 50x70cm, the same construction at a larger scale
- Framed canvas, 30x40cm, in a wood frame: black, dark wood or natural wood
Free UK delivery on every one. Watercolour costs the same as the oil, the charcoal, the line drawing and the pastel; the style you choose does not change the price.
Which photographs work
Watercolour is more forgiving of a soft or slightly grainy photograph than the oil is, because the medium is soft to begin with. What it still needs is the face lit and in focus, taken roughly at their eye level rather than from above, and large enough in the frame that the eyes are clear. A phone photo from a window-lit room beats a studio shot from across the garden.
What we don't do
We don't invent pets, and we don't reconstruct a portrait of an animal you never photographed. We don't do costume themes. If the portrait is not right, you do not accept it. If a printed canvas arrives damaged or misprinted, our delivery and returns page applies: email within 30 days with your order reference and a photo, and we reprint or refund, your choice.
Delivery
5 to 9 working days to UK addresses. Delivery is included in the price, and we deliver to UK addresses only.
Related: the oil portrait, the framed portrait, how the personalisation works, cat portrait.