Turn your pet into a paint by numbers portrait

OutlineArt turns a photo of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet into a paint-by-numbers kit you can print. You get a numbered outline, a colour key with mixing recipes and a preview of the finished painting. It's free, and your photo never leaves your device.

Pets make great subjects. The catch is that the maker can only work with what's in the photo, so it pays to spend a few minutes picking the right one. That's often the difference between a painting that looks like your pet and one that looks like any old dog.

Choose the right photo

Get down to their eye level. Photos taken from above make the head look big and the body small, and the face ends up tiny. The face is where the likeness is, so you want it to fill the frame.

Sharp eyes matter more than anything else. If they're blurred, the painting looks lifeless. Pick a photo where the eyes are in focus, ideally with a little light in them.

Soft daylight works best. Try a spot near a window, or outside in the shade. Flash flattens fur and can make eyes glow green or red. Harsh sun isn't much better, because the bright patches and deep shadows each turn into one big area.

Keep the background simple if you can. A busy one uses up colours and adds lots of small areas. You can crop most of it away with the frame and the zoom slider anyway.

Very dark and very light coats need a bit of care. A black dog in the shade can end up as one or two dark shapes, so look for a photo where light catches the fur. With a white pet, skip photos where the coat is so bright that you can't see any detail in it.

Settings that work for pets

Portrait orientation suits a head-and-shoulders shot. Drag the frame over the face and lower the zoom to get in closer.

For most pets, 16 to 24 colours is about right. Fur has lots of subtle tones, and more colours keep the markings, like a tabby's stripes or the white blaze on a collie. If your pet has a patchy coat, such as a tortoiseshell or a merle, go for 24 or more.

Balanced detail works for most photos. Fine keeps the whiskers and the small highlights in the eyes, but you'll have a lot more tiny areas to paint. A3 or US Tabloid (11 x 17 in) gives the areas room, while A4 or US Letter is fine for a simple photo with fewer colours.

Once the pattern is ready, switch to Zoom in and look at the eyes and nose. Have they melted into the fur? Frame closer, add a few colours or try Fine, then make it again. It only takes a few seconds, so it's worth trying two or three versions.

Painting fur and eyes

Start with the background and the big areas of the body. Leave the eyes and nose for last, when your hand is steady and you have a small brush ready.

The tiny white highlight in each eye is what brings a pet portrait to life. If it's too small to get its own number, add a dot of white at the end and use the preview page as your guide.

When the paint is dry, you can soften a few edges with short strokes in the direction the fur grows. You don't have to. It just makes the coat look less patchy.

Your colour key has a recipe for every number, mixed from eight basic acrylics. The guide to mixing acrylic paint explains how to read them and how to get the browns and greys that most coats need.

A gift, or a way to remember them

A painted portrait makes a lovely present for a friend who adores their pet. It's also a gentle way to remember a pet that has died. Print the outline on thick card and add the colour key, the preview and a small set of acrylics, and the kit is ready to give. For paper and printer settings, see how to print it.

Everything happens in your browser, so you can use any photo from your camera roll. Nothing is uploaded.