Crown & Paw custom pet portrait

We received a Crown & Paw custom pet portrait for review, but no monetary compensation was received for this rave review.

I finally did it, I found the coolest gift ever for any animal lover. It’s 100% guaranteed to make them swoon, and it’s as easy to do as it is awesome. Introducing Crown & Paw, a custom pet art creation company. Basically, they turn your pet’s picture into a work of art. Literally.

I’m going to stop you right now and warn you that if you know my husband IRL or on social media, you have to pinky promise you’re not going to tell him what you’re about to read. He finds out any of this below post and Christmas is as good as ruined. Ruined, I tell you.

Now, that you’re not going to ruin Christmas, you can read on.

How Crown & Paw works

1). First, take a look at the Crown & Paw site and choose a costume or pose from over 150 unique options. Whether you go with a regal or formal portrait or you go for something truly whimsical, there’s an option for every pet personality. Want more than one pet in the portrait? No problem! You can do up to four in the pose, which I love because I couldn’t imagine separating our sugar gliders. They are a pair. A pair on a Dinner Date, presumably.

2). Then, you pick a photo from your camera roll {or, if it’s a gift for someone else, you scour their social media until you find the perfect picture} and upload it with your order.

3). This is the hard part…. Then you wait for a few days until your preview is ready. This can take 9-10 days during busy periods, but is usually around 1-2 days. Trust me, it is worth the wait. So, so worth it. Like, blow your mind worth it.

4). Once you have your preview, you can view your portrait, request edits, and approve it for printing. Then, your pet portrait will be finished up and sent to you all ready for gifting. All that’s left is preparing to make your recipient melt with all the cuteness.  

Custom pet portrait from Crown & Paw

I should start by saying that this isn’t your cousin’s brother-in-law’s photoshop skills. These are pet portrait artists, and it shows. They know custom pet art creation, and it’s really not as easy as it may look.

Crown & Paw’s expert designers create your personalized pet portrait with lots of love, care and attention. They use proprietary design techniques, transformative photo re-touching and professional blending processes in their design house to produce your custom pet masterpiece. All designs then go through an in-house quality check to ensure your unique pet artwork is absolutely perfect.

Honestly, I can photoshop pretty well. I could easily find one of my pictures and stick a pet’s face into it. If you can’t do something similar, you probably know someone who could, right? Well, Crown & Paw isn’t that. This isn’t a standard face swap because this isn’t a standard portrait. This is a pet, with very specific pet needs.

Start by asking yourself some questions: Do you have a library of portraits that lend themselves to a face-to-pet swap? If the answer is no, you can go right to the info at the bottom of the article that will give you all the info you need to order from Crown & Paw. If the answer is yes, you’re still not off the hook yet.

I have one last question for you that will determine if you need a pro or if DIY is the way to go: Have you ever photoshopped around whiskers? No? Then you have *no idea* how hard it is. Whatever they are charging is 100% worth it if they will produce this gorgeous masterpiece.

See those whiskers? All of those had to be photoshopped. Every. Single. One. Those whiskers take what could be an okay picture and make it into a masterpiece. This portrait without the whiskers on our sugar gliders is *fine*, but add those in and I will admit I was actually speechless when it arrived. I guarantee that when my husband sees it, he’s going to absolutely flip out.

Our Crown & Paw custom pet portrait

Don’t be fooled by this amazing portrait titled The Dinner Date. Our pets are impossible to photograph, and getting their photos into this portrait was no small feat. This magic is all thanks to their amazing artists at Crown & Paw.

First off, our sugar gliders are nocturnal. So, whenever there’s good daylight and photographable conditions, they are fast asleep. Should you wake them up, they will just cuddle back into you and fall asleep again. It’s adorable and endearing, but it’s terrible for photographing.

Secondly, they are skittish {especially when woken up} and don’t sit still. Ever. Nearly every single picture I have of them is slightly blurry, and I’m a professional.

Third, they like to cuddle. They don’t like being exposed, so in order to get them out we must be holding them, which means they are snuggled up. This doesn’t lend itself well to photographing their faces without any background distractions. We have a handful of great pictures of these critters and we’ve had them for 4+ years. I was dealing with 5 pictures total to get these images of our sugar gliders and neither of the pictures was perfect for their purposes.

So, to say that I’m impressed with their artist rendering is a vast understatement. They basically worked their magic to make our sugar glider faces match the portrait style, and they added some awesome artist touches that make them fit the portrait. Oh, and did I mention those whiskers? Swooooon.

Tips from the Crown & Paw team

Yes, the Crown & Paw artists are amazing, but they are not miracle workers. Here’s some tips to help them get you the best custom pet portrait.  

Ready to order your custom pet portrait from Crown & Paw?

You can start searching at www.crownandpaw.com to find your favorite outfit or pose. Once you’ve fallen in love, you can choose your picture to fit the portrait. Upload it with your order and let the magic happen. Not sure if you want a traditional portrait or something else entirely? No worries, because they have all sorts of products that aren’t canvas. Just check out their amazing selection of gifts all ready for your special recipient.