Lively Pet Portraits: Fur Embroidery Techniques
A course by Santo Cielo
, Designer and Textile Artist
Learn to embroider realistic animal portraits by exploring fur and stitching techniques to give your favorite pet life and texture
- 100% positive reviews (38)
- 1436 students
- Audio: English
- English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch

Learn to embroider realistic animal portraits by exploring fur and stitching techniques to give your favorite pet life and texture
Animal portrait embroidery is a creative way to demonstrate our love towards our furry friends. Embroidery artist Santo Cielo specializes in immortalizing photographs and memories of these tiny critters that make our lives happier. From his home in Berlin, he creates commissioned work for clients, hosts workshops for beginners, and shares his embroidery with over 14K followers on Instagram.
In this online course, Santo teaches you how to embroider animal portraits by teaching you his specialized fur techniques. Learn how to make realistic fur with the arrow scheme and a variety of stitches. Pay homage to your animal companion with needle and thread.
What will you learn in this online course?
23 lessons & 26 downloads
- 100% positive reviews (38)
- 1436 students
- 23 lessons (5h 6m)
- 26 additional resources (11 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: English
- English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
What is this course's project?
Create an embroidery piece based on a photo of a pet using realistic fur techniques.

Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
This course is for anyone with a special furry friend they would like to embroider.
Requirements and materials
No previous experience is necessary.
To take this course, you need an embroidery hoop, fabric, needles, thread, a photograph of an animal, tracing paper, scissors, a pencil, and a permanent marker.

Reviews

A course by Santo Cielo
Santiago Celio Cioli is a designer and textile artist from Montevideo, Uruguay. Although he earned his degree in industrial design at the Escuela Universitaria Centro de Diseño, and has since worked in many design and artistic fields, his passion is handmade embroidery.
For the past few years, Santo has been living in Berlin, where he currently works as an embroidery artist. His work ranges from portraits of pets, people, memories, and even imaginary creatures. Apart from taking commissions, he also hosts embroidery workshops for beginners.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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About Me
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Influences
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U2
The First Steps
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Materials
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Choosing the Right Photo
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The Movement of Fur and Layers
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Color Selection: Threads and Background Fabric
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U3
The Sampler
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Preparing the Hoop
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Transferring the Pattern
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A Very Furry Sampler 1
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A Very Furry Sampler 2
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A Very Furry Sampler 3
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U4
Embroidering
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Tracing
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Embroidering the Eyes and Nose 1
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Embroidering the Eyes and Nose 2
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Embroidering the Snout 1
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Embroidering the Snout 2
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Embroidering the Ears, Jaw, and Forehead 1
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Embroidering the Ears, Jaw, and Forehead 2
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Embroidering the Ears, Jaw, and Forehead 3
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Isolated Hairs and Whiskers
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U5
Final Touches and Care Tips
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Adding Names
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Cleaning, Washing, and Ironing the Embroidery
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Finishing the Hoop
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FP
Final project
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Lively Pet Portraits: Fur Embroidery Techniques
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
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Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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Certificates
PlusIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
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Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
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Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
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Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
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Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Domestika's courses are online classes that provide you with the tools and skills you need to complete a specific project. Every step of the project combines video lessons with complementary instructional material, so you can learn by doing. Domestika's courses also allow you to share your own projects with the teacher and with other students, creating a dynamic course community.
All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.
The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.
You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.
isiiii
Me gustaron las técnicas enseñadas en el curso, fue fácil de seguir
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caritocm88
Lindo curso, muy completo!... santo cielo es un gran bordador con una manera muy bella de transmitir el amor por lo que hace. Me hubiese gustado que se hicieran más acercamientos mientras él borda, ver con mayor detalle el proceso es importante en técnicas dónde se quiere realismo, son puntadas demasiado pequeñas y aveces no es tan comprensible a los ojos el como se mueve el hilo en el diseño. Por lo demás muy contenta con el curso.
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jaramaria96
Super
colibri.carmona
Elegí este curso basándome en el temario. Me encantaron los detalles del como hacer una pieza presentable. No solo se concentra en el bordado también da excelentes consejos de limpieza y acabado. Lo malo no entendí muy bien el como realizar la nariz, pero en los recursos encontré la respuesta. La explicación es excelente.
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luzma_1996
aun no lo termino, pero lo que he visto me parece claro, bien explicado
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