A pet illustrator's origin story

Recently, a AP news article was published about my new book, Dogs of the World!

This article begins with a mention of my dog biting my landlord, as an origin story, so I feel I should elaborate. Guess what? I did write up an origin story several years ago. Here it is!

Doggie Drawings Origin Story
(written 3/28/2018)

Before Doggie Drawings, I was designing masked wrestler characters for an animated kids’ TV show that I co-created, a big production that brought me to Los Angeles from Sydney.

Boogie and me, 2007. Day of his adoption from Boston Buddies.

There are many stories about adopted pets changing the lives and careers of their owners - it is almost a cliche- and this happened to me too. When I adopted my blue-eyed Boston Terrier ten years ago, I drew him obsessively, and when people wanted drawings of their dogs too, Doggie Drawings was launched. At first it was really a hobby fundraiser project to raise donations for Boston Buddies Rescue. A year later when the animation industry was no longer sustaining me and I found myself still drawing dogs full-time for free, I started charging for portraits. I became a business - a pet portrait service.

I used to draw portraits in this style.

I have now drawn thousands of dogs, many cats, a couple of pigs, turtles, and birds. The joy these portraits bring to my clients is what motivates me to keep doing what I do.

"Can you get rid of the grey, and make him a little skinnier?" "Can he be dressed like Sherlock Holmes?" "Can she be driving a 1965 Volvo?” Of course!

Greta the dachshund, driving a 1965 Volvo.

A few months after I adopted Boogie, he put a hole in my building manager’s leg.

I received an eviction notice and was issued an ultimatum from my landlord: I could either move out, or stay and return my dog to the rescue. This was a devastating time of my life. I didn't want to leave - I had good friends (my family!) who lived on the same street, and there was no way I was going to relinquish Boogie. I started a petition, and after all my friendly neighbors vouched for me to stay and I found a dog trainer who signed a guarantee that this "aggression" will never happen again, I was allowed to stay and keep Boogie.  My landlord said he would have preferred starring on The Dog Whisperer Show, but he accepted this arrangement.

Not knowing any better at the time, I had hired the first dog trainer I found on Google, and this trainer insisted that dogs should be corrected and shown who is boss. Boogie was made to wear a prong collar 24/7 and be choked or pinned down whenever he disobeyed a command or vocalized. With repeated corrections, Boogie became a more silent dog and even appeared to be more “obedient”, but at the same time he had become extra triggered by everything and more aggressive towards unfamiliar humans and dogs. The trainer said I wasn’t being dominant enough even though there were already red prong collar marks on Boogie's neck.

In my desperation to make my dog "socially-normal", I turned to books and Youtube videos. I was lucky to connect with trainers (eg, Grisha Stewart, Emily Larlham) who made me aware that dominance-based training methods were in fact based on a lot of outdated bullshit information about dogs, and that aggressive behavior is fear-based rather than my dog trying to dominate me.  Switching to modern positive reinforcement training methods and with the guidance of a new trainer (Sarah Owings), I saw a major change in Boogie: he became happier, more relaxed, more expressive, and more responsive, as I too was learning to understand what he was feeling and saying to me.  Now that I could not unsee the body language I had learned to see, this knowledge gave me new confidence in myself as a pet parent, and helped me help him. I now had a dog who when triggered by something scary on the street, would stop, turn and look at me instead of lashing out. If only other people with reactive dogs could understand what their dogs were saying to them, instead of shouting back as so many of them do: “Stop it! Bad dog! Sit!”

As a very visual person, I have always believed that images speak louder than words and make concepts easier to digest. I kept a blog for Boogie and did sketches of my training-related experiences. I went from drawing images of “How to corrrect your dog with a prong collar” to now internet-viral posters like "How Not To Greet A Dog", "Doggie Language", “Space Etiquette For Dogs”, which I offer as free downloads from my website. I wanted to make this information more accessible and to encourage people to see their dogs as intelligent, communicating, sentient beings. who deserve to be treated with more respect and kindness. I wanted other pet parents to not make the same training mistakes I made with Boogie.

Around this time, my blog sketches were seen by progressive dog trainers and I became a dog infographics illustrator-for-hire. I approached one of my heroes - the late Dr. Sophia Yin - and worked as her illustrator for three years. I also created images that have been used by the IAABC, RSPCA, spcaLA, ispeakdog, Family Paws, and other organizations that advocate for humane training methods and teach dog bite prevention.

illustrations for Dr Sophia Yin (2011)

Six years later I found myself suffering from burnout. I was constantly on deadline and couldn’t take a break away from my desk. I envied other artists who had merchandise to sell online. I thought I had nothing to sell because my work was all custom-made for specific clients.

In 2013, about 50 of my custom pet portraits showed up in a reality TV episode in the UK, with someone else’s signature on them. This so-called “pet artist” was also selling canvas prints of my portraits to boutiques around London. Although I had very expensive  legal counsel and the support of fans, I failed to stop the infringer. A year later, my Doggie Language (Boogie) illustrations showed up on socks and t-shirts in a large chain store around USA and I was forced to sue. This time I had more effective legal representation. This lawsuit was publicized around the internet with all eyes on me, feeling violated, humiliated, depressed, and disheartened. It was also a kick in the butt to learn about copyright registrations, and to make sure I defined how my work is to be used and by whom. Hello, adulting!

The positive thing I took away from all this was knowing that my art was valuable. If people would steal it, profit from it, and pay for it, I had to go from being a service to also being a seller. In addition to custom illustrations and educational PSAs, I opened an online etsy shop. 

Dogs Playing Mahjong (2nd version) I sell this as a print

In 2014, when my boyfriend and I became very interested in tabletop games and learned to play mahjong, I was having fun working on a “Dogs Playing Mahjong” illustration. (An Asian version of “Dogs Playing Poker”) I thought it would be funny if the dogs were all Chinese dog breeds and so I found myself researching dog breeds from Asia (Chow chow, Shih tzu, Pug, etc). Before long, I was wikipedia-ing the origins of every other dog breed in the world and creating designs for Australian Dogs, American Dogs, Russian Dogs… obsessively staying up late every night for 3-4 months until I had 192 dog breeds designed in a new fun style. My goal was to have every dog look cute, happy, relaxed, and with casual ‘homebody’ hairstyles, the total opposite of what you see in those austere AKC dog breed charts on veterinary hospital walls. My happy dogs and their countries of origin became the “Dogs of the World” series.

The original poster series (2014)

I did not expect my dog breed designs to go viral on the internet so soon, and this blasted me off into a whole new world of selling merchandise like prints, pins, puzzles, blankets, and more with these designs. It has been exciting collaborating with other designers and manufacturers to make new products, while I continued to work as a pet portrait artist.  Seeing my officially licensed art in brick and mortar shops, out there in the off-internet world, is a thrill. 

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Continued - 4/18/2025

A lot more happened and to cut a long story short...

My first book, Doggie Language, was published in 2020, two weeks before Boogie passed away. Our two cats, Mambo and Shimmy came into my life in 2021 and they were the major inspiration for Kitty Language.

Dogs of the World is out now as a new beautiful book! It would mean the world to me if you could share your thoughts, your favorite pages, and help me send this book around the world!

 - Lili x