Warm oils
Warm oils gives a classical painted finish. Light is warm and reflected — it comes off the surroundings into the shadows, so a face is never lost in its own dark side — and the brushwork is fine and blended, with the most detail in the eyes, the muzzle and the roots of the whiskers. Coats are built up in layers rather than drawn, which is what gives a painted animal weight. It is the most classical of the four and the one the royal looks are painted in.
Suits: Any coat with subtle gradation — a red that shades to cream, a brindle, a tabby with fine stripes. Dark eyes read especially well.
Try it at: Jemaa el-Fnaa · Bahia Palace · Souk Semmarine
Use Warm oilsLoose brushwork
Loose brushwork is bright and impressionist. Daylight, seen straight, with loose brushwork that treats a coat as masses of colour rather than individual hairs, and lets water, leaves and tiles stay lively rather than resolved. Shadows are coloured, not grey. It is the style with the most energy in it, and the one that reads best from across a room.
Suits: Strongly coloured coats and bold markings; a playful, alert expression. Less flattering to very fine detail, which it deliberately loosens.
Try it at: Jardin Majorelle · Le Jardin Secret · Menara Olive Grove
Use Loose brushworkSoft light
Soft light makes a quiet keepsake. Soft, low-contrast light; subtle, almost invisible brushwork; the whole picture organised around clear, expressive eyes. Nothing in it competes with the face. It is the style we recommend for a memorial and for an old animal whose expression is the point, because it flatters without decorating.
Suits: Older animals, greying muzzles, gentle temperaments. Any coat; the light is even and kind to all of them.
Try it at: Ben Youssef Madrasa · An Adobe Wall · Bab Agnaou
Use Soft lightNatural detail
Natural detail is our signature editorial portrait — the closest to a photograph. Natural fur, every strand legible; clear eyes; warm film colour with a little grain; the real character of the place in sharp focus behind. Because it changes the least, it shows most plainly what carried over from the photograph — which is why it is the style to judge a likeness in.
Suits: Everything, and especially a pet whose coat texture — curls, feathering, wire — is the thing you love. The most literal likeness of the four.
Try it at: Koutoubia Minaret · A Guéliz Café Terrace · The Ramparts
Use Natural detailThe six atelier styles — The Lantern, The Zellij, The Ochre, The Ink, The Rosewater, The Souk — are more pronounced changes of colour, contrast and brushwork, and each is described above the comparison. All ten apply to any of the seventeen places; the style changes the brushwork and mood, never the place.