Create a Pet Portrait0Craftrie brings fine-art portraiture to the pets we call family. Founded by Elizabeth Harper in New York, our brand brings together artists trained in drawing and painting. We paint each pet directly onto clear glass, using the photographs and details you choose.
Elizabeth Harper · Founder & Creative Director
When I choose a gift for someone close to me, I want it to show that I know them. For a pet lover, that often means the dog in every weekend photograph, or the cat whose face fills their camera roll.
I built Craftrie around that kind of recognition. A portrait should bring a particular animal to mind immediately: the familiar expression, the uneven markings, the way the head turns toward the person behind the camera.
That is why we chose realistic painting. We want the person opening the frame to recognize their own pet, and to feel that someone has paid attention to a part of their life they love.
A pet’s face can bring back a routine, a room or a particular day together. The painting begins with that face. Its value comes from the person who recognizes the life around it.
A golden-eyed tabby · Look at the eye shape, white muzzle and individual stripes
Two cats can share the same silver coat and still look completely different to the people who know them. Eye shape, the width of the nose and the pattern around the mouth all influence that recognition.
Our artists use your photographs to study those relationships. A bright highlight, a softer edge or a change in fur direction can affect how the face reads. The aim is a painted expression that feels familiar when you look across the room.
Your reference matters because it gives us more than a breed or a coat color. It shows the individual pet you want to remember.
Look closely at the portraitsImagine giving a friend a framed painting of the dog who follows them from room to room. The subject is already part of their daily life. You have chosen a gift around a relationship you know matters to them.
The photograph is your part of the gift: a favorite expression, a much-loved pose or a moment they might not have thought to frame. The hand-painted portrait gives that choice a place on a shelf, desk or bedside table.
For a birthday, a new pet parent or someone remembering a companion, the intention is the same: choose a pet they know by heart. Gift packaging is included, so the finished portrait arrives ready to give.
Choose a portrait for someone I love
Two cats, two expressions, painted together in one wooden frame
In this close-up, the artist works around a border collie’s eyes and coat. Small strokes follow the direction of the fur, while lighter and darker areas shape the face.
That work depends on observation and judgment. A painter decides where an edge needs definition, where fur should look softer and how much contrast will bring the eyes forward.
We paint the portrait directly on glass in acrylic. Each piece develops through those individual decisions, guided by the photograph and the details you share.
Watch the eye and fur detailsOur artists bring fine-art training from OCAD University, Rhode Island School of Design and Pratt Institute. Drawing, color and composition each contribute to the finished portrait.
Drawing & likeness
OCAD UniversityDrawing & Painting · TorontoClara begins with the structure of the face: the space between the eyes, the shape of the muzzle and the angle of the ears. Her focus is on the small differences that make a portrait recognizable as one particular pet.
Color & expression
Rhode Island School of DesignPainting · ProvidenceAlexander works with color, light and fine brushwork. He builds depth through the coat and pays close attention to the eyes, where a small change in shape or highlight can change the expression of the whole portrait.
Composition & finish
Pratt InstituteFine Arts · New YorkSophie considers the complete painting: how a pet sits within the frame, how several companions share the space and where the eye is drawn first. Her approach connects the likeness with a portrait that feels at home on display.
When you are choosing a photograph of a pet you miss, the most important one may be an ordinary moment: resting after a walk, looking up from a favorite spot, waiting beside the door.
A portrait gives that expression a place among the family pictures you see every day. Choose the photograph that feels most like your pet, even if it is older. If you are unsure whether we can work from it, ask us before ordering.
Create a portrait in remembranceWe’ll help turn it into a hand-painted portrait for your home or someone you love.