Pet Portrait FAQs

If you are selecting one of our ‘Digital Only’ products, this means that once you have confirmed your draft portrait, you will receive a high resolution file for you to print yourself (see below questions for our advice on how to go about printing this).

However, if you are unsure about printing yourself, or want to ensure a high quality finish, we now offer framed portraits and prints where we print, frame and ship your portrait to you from our own home studio.

Our customised pet portraits aren’t in fact painted with a brush and paints. Instead we use digital effects on your image to replicate the watercolour look and add a canvas texture to perfectly finish off the portrait.

All of the colours we use are colours taken from your pets fur - you’d be amazed at the colours we find! This approach also means the portraits are easy on the eye as all the colours match and tie together beautifully.

Our turnaround time to get you your first draft after purchase is only two working days. We think this is super speedy and ensures you get your finished product asap - we know having a custom portrait made is exciting!

If you require any revisions to your portrait, we should have your amended product to you in just a day or two - although we do appreciate if you let us know about any necessary revisions asap.

For our prints and framed portraits, we will have these in the post to you within two working days of you confirming your draft. Unfortunately we are unable to confirm shipping times, as it is dependent on where you live in New Zealand and if the courier company is facing any delays. However, you will receive a tracking number for your package once it has been shipped.

Choosing your photo for your custom portrait is the most important step! Make sure you read through our Guide to Choosing the Perfect Picture and remember you can always email us your image before you buy, just to make sure it will work for a perfect portrait.

We allow for unlimited revisions on your personalised portrait. Our goal is to create the perfect piece for you and as such we won’t stop until you’re 110% happy!

We do that ask that any revisions are requested within 5 days of receiving your draft.

We recommend popping down to your local high quality print shop or using an online print shop service. The better quality the paper and printer, the better your portrait is going to look.

We have found printing on a high quality lustre paper provides the best finish and value for money. Print shops (including Warehouse Stationery’s) can provide this service for you. You can also print on 250gsm (or higher) quality fine art paper, as this enhances the canvas texture look and creates an authentic watercolour feel, however this requires a premium printer to achieve a professional looking finish. This service (printing on archival paper instead of photo paper) will be provided by specialty print shops only and we do not recommend printing in this style at the Warehouse Stationery.

If in doubt, we recommend purchasing one of our prints or framed portraits as we ensure your portrait is printed and framed perfectly for you.

Unfortunately, once we send you your first draft, we are unable to change your photo for your portrait. This is because each portrait is personalised and takes hours to perfect. Therefore, a new photo would mean starting from scratch.

We are happy to accommodate image changes after the first draft, however we will ask that you purchase the portrait again with the new photo.

Remember, you can always check your photo with us before you order, we’re here to help and don’t forget to check our our guide to choosing a photo here!

We offer the ability to remove certain items from your image when you order a portrait.

Some examples of what we often remove are collars, harnesses, eye goop, mud or muck on fur and distracting background elements.

While we can attempt to remove most things, please note that if the item you would like removed takes up a considerable amount of the image, it is likely this can’t be removed and you may need to choose a different photo for your portrait.

We understand how hard it can be to get a single photo with all your pets looking good at one time… it’s almost impossible! Fortunately, at Pawtraiture Design, our preference is that you send through two or three individual photos of your pets for us to combine into one image (if you have selected our multi-head shot portrait for additional pets). However, if you have got the golden photo of all your pets smiling at once, please don’t hesitate to send that through, we can’t wait to see it!

At this stage, we allow up to three pets in a portrait, however if you would like more than this, please flick us an email as we would be more than happy to do a special commissioned piece for you.