Painter Valerie Leonard is the Annie Leibovitz of pet portraits—without the mounting debt and camera, that is. Valerie’s “process” is an insanely involved one: She devotes days to each portrait, studies images of a particular animal, researches traits and characteristics of specific breeds. Then, she researches classic artists for the most fitting painting, using the client’s direction as a guide. And once chosen, she merges the animal image with the human form. In the final product, the animal features and background are often cobbled together from a composite of different images. Wondering what that looks like? Check out the dogs above, and a bunch more of her images, after the jump!
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