Although as an artist I can employ a degree  of "artistic licence" for most subjects, with a pet portrait I really need some accurate information in your photograph to be able to produce a good likeness of your pet. You probably have a favorite photograph of your pet in mind that I can use as a basis for your portrait, but if possible please take some additional back up photographs to help me with the finer points, bear in mind that I would have never met your animal and have no idea of how he/she looks or behaves apart from the information that you provide, I also like to have some information about the animal and its personality/ mannerisms again this all helps me to get an overall feel for the portrait and will produce a more pleasing result Clearly if the animal you would like portrayed is no longer alive I will have to work from whatever photographs exist and will do my best to produce a good portrait from them so please send as many as possible (they will all help) 

 I have in the past struggled to work from some pretty bad reference photographs and although the owners are always thrilled with the result, I personally know that I would have achieved a  better result with a good clear reference photograph, so the better the photograph the better the resulting portrait will be. Here are some tips for taking good reference photo shots, try to follow these to get the most helpful pictures for me to work from

• Take your photographs (using a camera rather than a mobile phone) in natural daylight, outside if possible, avoid strong sunlight and the camera flash
• Set your camera to take the highest resolution shots possible.
• Get down to the animals eye level to take your shots, pet photos taken from a standing viewpoint will be distorted by the foreshortening effect 
• Fill the camera frame with the subject and make sure that the camera is focused on the animals eye.
• Use the highest resolution that your camera will allow (biggest file size) this will ensure that I can see your pet in great detail.
• Take several shots from different angles sometimes the most unusual pose makes a more interesting portrait and the more photographs I see the better feel I can get for the animals character
• If you are struggling to get your animal to stay in one place try asking a friend to help by standing just behind you and slightly to one side, holding a treat or your pet's favorite toy.