We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Liliana Tiffin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Liliana below.

Liliana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

Honestly, I would go back and care less about what people think, trends etc. I often caught myself second guessing whether or not to make something, to put the time into and invest in a piece that wouldn’t be stereotypically popular. Just make the art! If you have the passion and the talent, people will come to your work because it’s yours, not because it’s what fits the mold. Of course, viral trends exist and harnessing them can change lives, so some level of respect should be granted to the current trends, as we all need to make money and a business at the end of the day. But I am rather jealous of creators who seem to freely make things so quintessentially them with no regard for how it’ll be perceived in the public eye. Go you!

Liliana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been working in the pet portrait space since 2016 with my main medium being pencil and paper (see @lilydrawsthings on instagram for my backlog) but I’ve recently had a shift over to oil paint and I truly love it. I’m very excited to delve into more human portraiture as well as wildlife and pet portrayals – I love the emotion people capture in the eyes with oil paint!

I do try to essentially put the spirit of the animal into any portrait I make. I quite enjoy when I’m able to hear all about a pets life, backstory, and personality before beginning a piece, it really helps the process along. Eyes are my favourite part and I don’t rest until you can see your best friend looking back at you. Especially for animals who have passed on, it’s one of my greatest strengths to be able to take older, maybe not so great photos, and combine them into something that reflects your dear one.

I’m very excited to hopefully work on some dynamic poses for portraits in the upcoming months – playing, sleeping, jumping etc. Personality shots!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Definitely local word of mouth. People are so focused on social media these days, and rightly so, but oftentimes the best source of new clientele is a friend of someone you just completed a piece for. Never underestimate the power of hanging a forever artwork in someone’s home! The amount of times I’ve gotten a random email from someone seeing a piece I’ve done almost ten years ago is a shockingly high percentage.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

This is easier to do with local clients, but I do enjoy reaching out and asking how their animal is doing, if I was working on a portrait that was not a memorial. Sending a hand written card along with the piece, offering a friends of friends discount for referrals and discounts on additional portraits purchased all go a long way. I aim to feel like we have a good back and forth conversation going by the time any of my clients have pieces in their hands!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lilianaportraits