About

About Pet Portraits

I make hand-drawn, energetic and grungy pen and ink portraits of pets with ink on paper. More details on the materials page.

There are two types of drawing:

• Studio Portraits
  Drawn with ink on 14×17″ bristol paper. These are very detailed and take a few weeks.
  
• Street Drawings
  Faster portraits drawn with ink on 19×24″ bristol paper. Originally created for events, I use this style when I am painting at a pop-up or public settings

All drawings are hand crafted using traditional materials, no digital process.

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Ordering a Portrait on the Website

1. Checkout a Studio Portrait with the Order button above in the menu or Street Drawing with the Order button on that page.
2. Post purchase you will be directed to a form to add all of your pet’s information and photos.
   Please add at least 5 photos, following these guidelines.
   If you have any trouble with the form, you can also DM me pics on instagram: @alvar.nyc
3. Studio portraits take about two weeks to be ready to ship. Street drawings take about one week.

Ordering a Portrait at an Event

1. Checkout using Applepay or other Tap to Pay.
2. Send me at least 5 photos, following these guidelines via Airdrop, instagram DM (@alvar.nyc), text or email.
3. If there is no queue you can pick up your drawing in ~1hr. Otherwise you can pickup your drawing at the end of the day or in the following days at the venue.

Links

• Instagram
• PixelFed
• Web Development

How I Started Drawing Pet Portraits

I started drawing pet portraits in 2022.

It began with a portrait of a friend’s pet who had passed away. At the time, I was primarily painting oil portraits of people. I found that pen and ink worked especially well for animals, both in terms of texture and emotional clarity.

I continued developing the work through private commissions and studio drawings.

In early 2025, I began doing street drawings. People frequently asked if I could draw at events, but my studio portrait process was too slow for live settings. I began experimenting with faster techniques and eventually returned to an earlier practice: using graffiti squeeze markers on larger paper to draw profile portraits.

That approach translated well to live drawing and became the basis for my street work.

About the Artist

I’m Alvar Sirlin, an artist and web developer based in New York.

I studied art at LaGuardia High School of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Bard College, SVA, the Art Students League, the University of Buenos Aires, and in the studios of Juan Carlos DiStefano and Burton Silverman.

Growing up in Manhattan I was a graffiti artist (BAES). After RISD, my practice included abstract painting and landscapes. I followed that with an intensive period focused on oil portraits and digitally colored pen-and-ink illustration for soccer and surfing publications.

You can see some of my painting below. Past illustration work can be found at archive.alvar.nyc.