My cat Indy, has been sick! So my husband and I have been taking care of him, giving him meds and making sure he is eating. I’m really scared we might lose him! Indy has been heaven sent. He is the little peace maker, sent to us from above to calm the storms of life. My first cat was a biter. He was cranky his entire life! When Indy entered the scene, suddenly Roman had a friend. Indy taught Roman a lot. And he has taught my husband and I a lot too. I’m praying for Indy, and one of my ways to pray is through art.

This technique works best with inkjet prints. If you want to make a pet portrait, the best way to start is to find an image of your pet. Fortunately I have lots of photos of Indy to choose from. If the photo doesn’t have a good background, zoom in on the pet and crop out the rest of the background. Or, if you have an Apple computer, use Preview or iPhoto to crop out the background. Reverse the image by flipping it horizontally, if possible. Then print it out. I printed mine in black and white, because my printer is out of colorful inks. 😜😊😄

If you look on the right side of the image, a little of the background was left in the photo when I printed it out. This is the reverse of Indy!

I decided to use the original image, that wasn’t reversed. I didn’t mind leaving some of the backdrop showing. If your inkjet print is smaller than the canvas you are working on, feel free to find a few more images online to print out and use with the pet image. You can either fill up the canvas completely with prints or just do certain areas. I’ve chosen to just do the main image so I can decorate around the outsides.

Put your canvas on the table in front of you, and lay out a thick layer of matte medium. I spread out the matte medium with a big paintbrush. Next, press the image(s) onto the canvas, sticking them to the matte medium. Use a credit card or squeegie thing to smooth out the paper so there are less wrinkles. Then let it dry for 24 hours.

When it is completely dry, get a rag and dampen it. I used a super absorbent rag and got it really wet, but not dripping. Wipe off the top layer of the paper to reveal the image. Don’t scrub too hard, because if you do it picks up the bottom layer where the image is. The paper will come off in smallish bits and clumps. Keep working until you get most of the top layer removed. Then wipe a damp rag over the top of the surface to remove any extra bits of paper.

Let that dry, then wipe your hand over the work to get any remaining lose paper bits off the canvas. I decorated around the outside with acrylic paints, brown ink and markers! I wrote a few words on a scrap of paper to see what I might want to write on the canvas. I love adding text to works, it’s just one of my things sometimes! Then I added the text onto the canvas and finished the work with little bits of pink acrylic paint as a nice accent.

Indy is still recovering slowly, some days he seems spunky and then some days not so good. Now I have this canvas to look at when Indy needs space, to keep focusing on positivity and what he means to me!

Create a Pet Portrait Canvas with Inkjet Image Transfers