A cat portrait from a photo: what makes it them

Why cats are different

Less face, more pattern, and eyes that change by the minute.

A dog’s likeness lives in its face — the length of the muzzle, the set of the ears, the eyebrows. A cat’s face is compact and its expression is subtle, so a cat’s likeness lives somewhere else: in the pattern of the coat, the colour of the eyes, the shape of the ears and the white — where it is on the muzzle, the chest, the paws. Two tabbies with the same face are told apart by the stripes.

That is why a cat portrait goes wrong in a particular way. The painting comes back as a handsome, generic cat of the right colour: the stripes are in the wrong place, the white bib is too big, the eyes are yellow when they are green. It looks like a cat. It does not look like that cat.

A cat is recognised by its markings. Get the markings into the photograph and the studio will keep them.

The four things to get into the photograph

Eyes, the M, the white, the ears.

• The eyes, open and lit. Cats’ pupils close to slits in bright sun and open to full black in dim rooms; neither shows the colour. Soft daylight — a window, an overcast garden — gives a round-ish pupil with the iris colour clear around it. Eye colour is the single thing the studio holds hardest, so make sure the photograph shows it.
• The forehead. Almost every tabby carries an M above the eyes, and the stripes that run back from it over the head are as individual as a fingerprint. A photograph taken from slightly above shows them; one taken from below hides them under the ears.
• The white. Where exactly it is: the chin only, the whole muzzle, a bib, socks or full stockings, a blaze up the nose. Face-on, in even light, so the edge of the white is clear against the colour.
• The ears. Their size relative to the head, whether they tip forward or sit wide, whether there are tufts. Both ears in the frame, not cropped.

Everything in the photo guide still applies — eye level, sharp, daylight, original file. Cats are just less willing, so use burst mode: hold the shutter, take twenty, keep the one where the eyes are open and the head is still.

Coats

What each pattern asks for.

• Tabby (brown, silver, ginger, grey). The pattern is the portrait. Photograph in soft light from slightly above; choose a place with a plain ground behind so the stripes are not fighting a pattern — the Majorelle wall, the garden wall, the adobe wall.
• Tuxedo and black-and-white. The white does the work. Face-on in even light so the bib and the blaze are exact. Bahia Palace — pale marble, green cushion — was painted for exactly this cat.
• Tortoiseshell and calico. The patches are random and the studio keeps them where the photograph has them, so show as much of the body as you can, face forward. Almost all torties are female; the studio does not need to know, but you may enjoy that.
• Black. The eyes are everything; the black-coat guide covers the light and the places.
• Pointed (Siamese, Ragdoll, Birman). Dark face, ears, paws and tail on a pale body, usually blue eyes. Daylight, never flash — a flash on blue eyes is a red flash — and a warm place: the terrace at last light or the café.
• Long-haired. Ruff, breeches, plume. Soft, even light shows every strand; the Ben Youssef courtyard’s bounced shade and the Terrace register are made for it.

The pose

Sitting tall, on something.

Cats sit best on a ledge, a wall, a chair or a cushion — something with an edge — and the seventeen places are full of those: the cobalt ledge at Majorelle, the warm wall above Le Jardin Secret, the bistro chair on the boulevard, the velvet cushion in the Bahia courtyard. A photograph of your cat sitting upright, front paws together, is the easiest to paint and the one that comes back most like them. A loaf, a sprawl or a cat mid-stretch can be painted, but the pose follows the photograph and the studio cannot make them sit up.

Styling

A scarf, pearls, or nothing.

The studio’s styling choices are deliberately few — Just Them, the styling of the model you chose, a burnt-orange silk foulard below the chin, a single short strand of pearls, old Amazigh silver, or a brass tea tray beside them rather than anything worn. Cats carry the foulard and the pearls unusually well — the Majorelle cat wears the scarf, the Bahia cat wears the pearls — because a cat sitting tall already looks like it is posing for a portrait. Nothing covers the ears or the eyes, and nothing is a costume. The six royal looks add a velvet cape and a cushion, for the cat who was born to it.

Judging the likeness

Look at the eyes, then the markings, then the ears.

When the preview arrives, look at it the way you would look at a photograph of a cat you were told was yours. Eye colour first. Then the M and the stripes over the head. Then where the white sits. Then the ears — size, set, tufts. If any of those is wrong, the box under the painting takes a sentence — her chin is white but not her chest, his eyes are green, not gold — and the repaint is free. Corrections using the same photo and setting are free. Another photo or setting uses a new preview.

Questions

My cat will not sit still for a photograph.

Wait for the moment they sit anyway — on a windowsill, watching something — and use burst mode from their eye level. You need one sharp frame with the eyes open; twenty attempts is normal. A photograph taken when they were younger is fine if it is sharp.

Two cats — can they be painted together?

Each portrait features one pet. Upload a separate photograph of each, choose the same place and register, and you have a matching pair. Each is purchased separately.

The preview made my cat look thinner or fatter than she is.

That is a photograph-angle problem more often than a painting problem: a photo from above slims, a photo from below broadens. Say so in the correction box and, if you have one, use a photograph taken from her eye level.

See it on your own pet

Upload one clear photograph, choose a place, and look at the painting before anything is owed. First two previews free, no account or card; the full-resolution file is €15.

Read next

• The photo that makes the portrait
• Jardin Majorelle — the cobalt wall
• Bahia Palace — the grand courtyard at siesta
• All guides