Terms of Use

These terms are between you and PawCreator, a painting studio in Portland, Oregon. Placing an order means you accept them. The one part worth reading even if you read nothing else is the next two sections, because between them they decide what happens if the piece is not right.

Anything unclear, or anything you think is unfair: write to hello@pawcreator.com. A person answers that address.

You choose a piece, upload a photograph, make your choices and pay. Then a person looks at your photograph — not a filter, and not an automated check. If it will not paint well we tell you so, and you get your money back. We would rather lose the order than paint something we cannot paint properly.

Then we design a proof: the crop, the background tone, the frame, worked up from your photograph. You can ask for changes as many times as you like, and nothing is painted until you approve it.

Prices are in US dollars, and everything we charge is shown at checkout. Shipping is free everywhere, with no minimum. Whatever your country charges on import — duty, tax, a handling fee — is yours to pay, and we cannot tell you from here what it will be.

The lead time on each product page is the honest number of working days the studio needs before your piece is dispatched. It is not padded, and it is not a promise about the courier.

You can cancel for a full refund at any point before you approve the proof — including after twenty rounds of changes, if it simply is not coming right. Once you have approved it the piece goes to the easel and we cannot stop it.

Because every piece is painted specifically for you, we cannot take a return because you changed your mind. What we will do, without argument, is repaint anything that does not match the proof you approved, and remake anything that arrives damaged, both at our cost. Tell us within 30 days of delivery, with your order number and a photograph of what arrived.

Shipping & Returns sets this out in more detail. The two pages say the same thing; if they ever disagree, that page is the one we will honour.

The photograph stays yours. Upload one only if it is yours to use — your own animal, or one you have the family's blessing to have painted. We use it to design your proof and to paint from, and for nothing else.

We do not publish it. Your upload, your proof and the finished piece are never shown on this site, on social media, or anywhere else, unless you decide to share them yourself. Most of what we are sent is a photograph of an animal who has died, and what happens to that photograph is not a decision for us to make on your behalf. If you would like the piece shown, you can leave a review with a photograph attached — and if you change your mind later, write to us and we will take it down.

The finished piece is yours: to keep, to hang, to give away.

An account is optional — you can order, and follow your order afterwards, as a guest. If you make one, keep the password to yourself. Anything done through your account is treated as done by you, so tell us straight away if you think somebody else is in it and we will sort it out.

We owe you the piece you approved, painted properly, and packed so it survives the journey. If we get that wrong, our responsibility for it is limited to what you paid for that order — a repaint, a remake, or your money back.

We cannot promise that this site is never unavailable, or that a courier is never late. And nothing written here limits anything the law does not allow us to limit.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Oregon in the United States, and a dispute that cannot be settled by writing to us belongs in the courts of Multnomah County, Oregon.

There is no arbitration clause and no class-action waiver in this agreement, and that is deliberate. You keep the right to take a dispute to a court.

We may update these terms as the studio changes. The version that applies to your order is the one that was published when you placed it — so a change next year cannot change the deal you made today.