Cats are surprisingly difficult to paint. Their faces are smaller and more symmetrical than a dog's, their expressions are more subtle, and their personality lives almost entirely in the eyes.
A great custom cat portrait is one of the most striking pieces of art you can hang in your home. A poor one looks like a generic cat. The difference is almost entirely in the design choices made before the brush ever touches the canvas. Our complete guide to pet paint-by-numbers covers the same ground for dogs and other animals.
Why Cats Are Different to Paint
A dog portrait can be carried by its energy: a tilted head, a bright tongue, soft ears. A cat portrait has to be carried by stillness — by the precise shape of the eyes, the angle of the whiskers, the soft transitions in the fur.
This means the photo you choose matters even more than it does for a dog. A cat photo without sharp eyes is almost impossible to turn into a portrait that genuinely looks like the cat. It is worth reading which photos work best for a paint-by-numbers portrait before you settle on one.
The Right Photo of Your Cat
Crouch down to eye level. Cats almost always look better photographed from their height, not yours.
Sit quietly and wait. A relaxed, half-blinking cat is more recognisable than a startled one staring straight at the camera.
Window light, no flash. Natural side-light brings out the structure of the face. Flash flattens everything.
Patience. It is normal to take fifty photos to get one that captures them. The hour you spend on the photo will be the best investment in the final painting.
Style: Soft Realism Almost Always Wins
For dogs, cartoon styles often work beautifully. For cats, soft realism wins more often than not. The dignity of a cat's face responds better to careful tonal painting than to bold cartoon outlines.
Cartoon cat portraits can absolutely work — especially for kittens, playful breeds, and kids' rooms — but the default style for a meaningful cat portrait is something closer to a quiet oil painting.
Multi-Cat Households
If you have two or three cats, a single canvas of all of them is one of the loveliest pieces you can make. The trick is choosing one good individual photo of each cat — never a group photo, which is almost always poorly lit on at least one of them.
Go up at least one canvas size for multiple cats. A 40×50 cm canvas is fine for one cat. A 50×70 cm canvas is the minimum for two.
Painting Order for Cat Portraits
Background, body, face, eyes. Always in that order. Save the whiskers for the very last hour — they are tiny, intimidating, and easier than they look once everything around them is finished.
If you only do one thing carefully on a cat portrait, do the eyes. Everything else can be slightly off and the painting will still look like your cat. The eyes cannot.
Custom cat portraits, done with care, become some of the most quietly loved pieces of art in a home. They sit on the wall and watch you the same way the cat watches you from the windowsill — and they keep doing it long after. If you are ready to start, our custom paint-by-numbers kit made from your photo is where most people begin.
— Be Artistic Club