Ghost Pet Portrait (A Little Boo)

What Is the A Little Boo Pet Portrait Style?

A ghost pet portrait is the gentle one in the Halloween collection. Your pet sits on a mossy clearing wearing nothing but a small burnt orange velvet bow, and four friendly sheet ghosts drift behind and beside them. Nothing in it is frightening, and nothing is put on your pet's face.

What is in the picture:

• Your pet seated and facing you, both front paws showing, in a small burnt orange velvet neck bow
• Four white sheet ghosts with oval eyes and happy mouths, floating behind and beside your pet and never covering them
• Orange, ivory and sage green pumpkins at the base and up the sides, maple leaves, curling vines, dried flowers and small stars
• A honey coloured moon in a dusty plum and teal twilight, inside an ornate painted botanical border
• A parchment cartouche along the bottom reading "A little boo. A lot of love."

The ghosts, pumpkins, border and scenery are painted gouache. Your pet is not: the face, eyes, whiskers, exposed coat and paws stay photographic, blended into the painting with warm reflected light and real contact shadows rather than cut out and pasted on.

Because there is no costume and no hat here, the likeness has nowhere to hide. The ear shape, muzzle, coat and markings all come from the photo you upload. If the photo shows your pet running, standing or lying down, they are rebuilt into the seated pose, and if it shows only the head, the body is inferred conservatively from what is visible.

The saying at the bottom stays in the artwork whether or not you add a name. Add one and it is lettered on a separate plum and gold cartouche at the top, above the ears with a clear gap. Leave it off and that top cartouche is gone entirely, and the border and moon close over it.

It starts from a single photo. Upload it and the portrait comes back in under a minute, so you can look at the result before you choose a format. A clear, well lit picture facing the camera gives the closest likeness, and a phone photo is fine.

Order it as a digital download, emailed in about 1 to 2 business days, or as a physical print. Prints ship within the US, about 1 to 2 weeks for fine art prints and posters and 2 to 3 weeks for canvas; custom framed pieces take 5 to 7 business days or about 3 weeks to ship depending on the frame, plus transit. The painted border and the small detail in the leaves reward a larger print.

It suits a young pet, a first Halloween, a nursery or a child's room, and anyone who wants the season without a scare in it. It is also the one in this collection that can stay on the wall through November, since the autumn border carries it past the end of October.