The ‘paw-fect’ portrait

Artist Olivia Timpson, who grew up as an only child with poodles for pets, said her first love, even before art, has always been dogs. When she was deciding what to draw as she transitioned into a full-time artist, she said, it was only natural for her to choose pets. 

Since becoming a pet portrait artist in 2017, meeting and getting to know the dogs and their owners before doing a portrait has remained Timpson’s favorite part. 

“Then I can think about the dog [when I paint them], and there’s more of a personal connection with it. … I understand them, I think. I’m [by] no means a dog whisperer, but it’s easy for some people to have a connection with dogs and understand them emotionally,” Timpson said.

So far, the vast majority of her clients and referrals have been in Mountain Brook, since she is so active in the community, attends church there and takes part in the Mountain Brook Driving Club events.

Most of the time, Timpson and her boyfriend Thomas Bonatz, who works in the online marketing side of her art as the business manager, said they go together to meet the client and pet and take pictures for the artwork. 

“When you know the dog, you know what the dog’s character is. So even though you’re only drawing the picture, you know what the dog is like. I’ve seen Olivia really form a relationship with that dog that she’s drawing,” Bonatz said.

Since then, Timpson said, some of their past clients even call on her to dog-sit occasionally, which has been a pleasant surprise. 

When Timpson was growing up, she thrived in art classes and even took a couple of private lessons. Both her dad, who noticed her talent in elementary school and spent time working with her, and her grandfather, an architectural designer, excelled at art and drawing, “so it’s in the family,” she said, and something she does nonstop.

Though she went to college at Montevallo for a singing scholarship, she switched her major to graphic design, which gave her the photo editing and design skills she now uses as a pet portrait artist. 

The first piece she did was for Bonatz’s roommate as a gift. Within about 24 hours of posting the picture to Facebook, Timpson had her first commission lined up.

Since the new year, Bonatz has been helping her develop an online presence through social media, in addition to word-of-mouth. A huge part of her initial success, Timpson said, was due to the Autism Society of Alabama (ASA) at the 2017 Annual Autism Shines Gala, where one of their auction items was an 8-by-10-inch custom pet portrait by Timpson.

Timpson, who is diagnosed with high-functioning autism, said the portrait she ended up doing for the winner, titled “Max,” was the pet portrait of a yellow Labrador that launched her career.

“[Max] doesn’t even know it, but he’s famous,” Timpson said, adding that Max’s family loves her success and goes to the gala every year.

Since 2017, Timpson said she has loved being more involved in the autism community, especially thanks to ASA Executive Director Melanie Jones, who was the one who gave her the opportunity to paint that first pet portrait. 

“It was a way for me to show families at the event, ‘Hey, I am very high functioning, I’ve overcome a lot in my life,’” Timpson said. “This is what I do now, and this is something special about me. Your child could have unique talents with a lot of emphasis on that talent, too.”

Timpson said she thinks her autism is what really helps her with her art in terms of focus and attention to detail. Bonatz added that some people outside of ASA don’t know she has autism.

“My connection to autism is I’m able to focus in on things, and this helps when I’m drawing. I really ignore everything else around me and focus in on what I’m drawing. All my life, I’ve just noticed everything visually,” Timpson said. “…That’s how I see the world, the details.”

Timpson said she is also extremely analytical, which has always made her not the “typical, free-spirited kind of artist,” but one who likes structured drawings of what she is actually looking at. Like many artists, she said, she tends to be a bit of a perfectionist, and she is always trying to improve through tutorials and research.

“Basically, art is all about proportions and the golden ratio. … It’s taken trial and error, just learning the logistics of it all,” Timpson said.

For each portrait, Timpson goes through hundreds of photos she takes and chooses the best ones with the most detail, which she then edits and enhances, crops out the background and comes up with a composition shot used for the portrait. 

After checking in with the client on the design, she goes on to lightly grid the photo and sketch the initial outline in pencil, which is followed by dozens of color pencil layers to get the exact shades of color on different spots of the pet. After that, she can start in on the details of the particular pet. 

The process can take from weeks to months, she said, with a timeline that is negotiated from the beginning.

So far, her clients have typically requested faces, although she also does full-body portraits, which tend to take longer. Her favorite part of the process is drawing the eyes, she said, and the reflections in them. 

Bonatz said Timpson’s detailed depictions of the eyes in particular are what makes her artwork stand out so much to people.

“That’s where the soul of the animal is. That’s what people are going to look at first,” she said.

Bonatz said he interacts with a lot of people about Timpson’s art, and local people often ask him why they should choose her over so many of the other pet portrait artists out there. What makes Timpson stand out, he said, is that people get “an experience” with her pet portrait. 

Not only does Timpson meet personally with the client and their pet, often several times, she also gives them complimentary extras like the enhanced and high-resolution photos of the dog and videos of the entire art process happening from start to end. 

“With the kind of artwork she does and with the chemical compound of the paper, some of these portraits will live longer than people if they are stored correctly,” Bonatz said. 

For more information or to schedule a portrait, send an email to timpsonart@gmail.com or go to Olivia Timpson Art on Facebook. Timpson also does deceased pet portraits. 

“Every time we deliver a portrait, the emotion we see from people, the amount of people you’ve made cry over the realness of the portrait is overwhelming,” Bonatz said. “… Olivia does go above and beyond almost all the other portrait artists in terms of personality and work.”