Your pet as a paint by numbers canvas
Dogs, cats and horses convert well — fur has natural contrast and shape. Upload a photo and see the pattern before you decide anything.
For a pet photo
- Get down to their eye level, not shooting from above
- Daylight from a window, no flash
- Head and shoulders filling the frame
- 40x50 cm or bigger — fur needs the room
About animals
Fur survives the conversion better than skin does
Skin is a gradual gradient, and flat areas represent that badly. Fur is not: it has direction, contrast and texture, and all three come through. A dog at twenty-four colours already looks like that dog.
What decides it are the eyes. Those need several separate areas — iris, pupil, the light spot — and each of those has to be wide enough for a brush.
That is a matter of canvas size, not colour count. Crop closer, or go bigger.
Why animals convert better than people
Skin is a gradual gradient, which flat areas represent badly. Fur is not: it has direction, contrast and texture, and all three survive the conversion. A dog at twenty-four colours already looks like that dog, where a face at twenty-four colours looks like a poster of a face.
The eyes decide it
What makes a pet portrait recognisable is the eyes, and those need several distinct areas — iris, pupil, the light spot, the shadow of the lid. Each of those has to be at least a couple of millimetres wide or no brush reaches them.
That is a matter of canvas size, not colour count. On a 30 by 40 with the whole animal in frame, the eyes are simply too small. Crop closer, or go bigger. For a dog or cat, 40 by 50 centimetres with the head filling the frame is the smallest size that works.
Dark fur
A black dog against a dark sofa is one shape to the generator, not two. If your pet is dark, photograph them against something light — a wall, a window, snow, a pale blanket. The separation has to exist in the photo before it can exist on the canvas.
The same goes for a white cat on a white duvet. It is not the colour that matters but the contrast with what is behind them.
Horses
Horses work well in profile or three-quarter view, where the line of the head and neck carries the image. A head-on shot flattens the whole face into one plane and loses that. Watch out for the background: a stable full of railings and buckets steals areas that the animal needs.
How many colours
Twenty-four for a bold, graphic result — good for a single-colour animal. Thirty-six for a coat with several tones, which is most dogs and tabby cats. Forty-eight only if the canvas is 50 by 70 or larger; below that the extra areas become too small to paint.
The full trade-off · Which photos work
Paint by numbers from a pet photo — frequently asked questions
- Which photo of my pet works best?
- One taken at eye level, in daylight, close enough that the head fills a good part of the frame. Photos shot from above turn the animal into a shapeless blob, and a flash flattens exactly the fur texture you want to keep.
- Does it work for cats as well as dogs?
- Both, and horses too. What matters is not the species but the coat: an animal with visible markings or several tones converts better than a solid black cat, where almost everything collapses into one dark area.
- Can I try it with my own pet photo for free?
- Yes. Upload the photo, pick a size and a colour count, and look at the full numbered pattern before you decide anything. The photo is processed in your own browser, so it never leaves your device unless you order.
- What canvas size should I choose for a pet portrait?
- 40 by 50 centimetres is the smallest that keeps a face recognisable. Go to 50 by 70 for a long-haired animal, or if the whole body is in the frame rather than just the head.
- Why does fur need a bigger canvas than a face?
- Fur is detail spread over a large area, not a few sharp lines. On a small canvas those tufts shrink below the size the generator will keep, so they get merged into flat patches and the coat stops looking like fur.