Guides
Before you upload.
Everything that decides whether the portrait is good happens before the painting is made. These pieces explain it — the photograph, the coat, the place, the way it is made — in plain terms, and each ends at the uploader.
The photograph
The photo that makes the portrait
How to choose or take the photograph that makes a good pet portrait: eye level, a clear face, daylight, the minimum size, and what to do with an old or blurry photo. Four real before-and-after pairs.
How it is made
An AI pet portrait, honestly
How an AI pet portrait is made here: what your photograph is used for, what the seventeen real places add, why you review before paying, what a repaint costs (nothing), and why prints wait for a 300 ppi master.
Coats
How to get a good portrait of a black dog
Black dogs photograph badly and paint beautifully, if the light comes from the side and the ground is lighter than the coat. Which Marrakech places do that, which photograph to take, and which frame to choose.
Cats
A cat portrait from a photo: what makes it them
Cats are harder to paint than dogs and easier to get wrong: the eyes, the tabby M, the white on the muzzle, the set of the ears. What to photograph, what the studio holds onto, and which places flatter a cat.
Marrakech
Majorelle blue: the story of a colour
Where the blue came from, who painted it, why Yves Saint Laurent bought the garden, and what the colour does to a portrait — from the painter's own reasons to the cat on the ledge.
The collections
Moroccan wall art: six traditions, and how to tell them apart
Zellij, the Orientalists, the Atlas carpets, Maghrebi manuscripts, the gardens and the Casablanca School — what each tradition is, what it looks like on a wall, and where in Marrakech you can stand in front of the real thing.
Royal portraits
A short history of the royal pet portrait
From the mastiff in Las Meninas to Queen Victoria's spaniel, painters have been putting animals in the frame with kings for five hundred years. Why the joke works, and how the six royal looks borrow from it.
Gifts
Giving a pet portrait without ruining the surprise
How to choose a usable photo with permission, check the likeness and give a digital pet portrait personally. File dimensions, delivery, and when to ask before giving.
Marrakech
Seventeen places, one city
A walk through the seventeen Marrakech places the studio paints, from the great square outward to the palm grove — what each one is, what hour it is painted at, and which animal it suits.
The pages the guides point to
- How it worksFrom your photograph to the finished file in four steps.
- The seventeen placesEvery setting, by quarter, with its hour and who it suits.
- The royal portraitsSix looks in velvet, pearls, brass and cedar.
- For a pet who has diedHow the studio handles it, quietly.
- Prints, sizes and framesThree sizes, eight finishes, and when a print is offered.
- The painting stylesWhat each register does to light, brushwork and mood.