A Pacific Beach student who’s started a pet-portrait business to help pay for a school trip may have just found her life’s calling.

Lilly Strasser, 14, of Pacific Beach Middle School, needs to raise almost $3,500 to attend an eighth-grade school trip to Washington, D.C., and New York City at the end of this school year. But Strasser, a talented young artist, is fortunate in that she has the aid of an invaluable ally, her dad Andy. Together, they’ve worked out a practical plan to achieve Lilly’s financial goal helping her start her pet-portrait business.

“It’s been an amazing experience and we’ve met a lot of nice people in OB, PB, Mission Beach, La Jolla, and Clairemont,” noted proud dad Andy adding, “There have even been a few tears shed when people received their portrait.”

Of the impact becoming a fledgling entrepreneur has had on his daughter, Andy noted: “She’s getting some early lessons in finance. My daughter is a really sweet kid who loves art and she’s extremely talented: Pretty cool.”

Strasser’s pet portraits are much more than mere photo reproductions. They’re unmistakable impressions of her subjects by the artist.

“How dark it is, and how light it is, makes a difference,” noted Lilly, whose artistic technique involves using digital shading to enhance her subjects, infusing her sense of feeling about them into their portrait.

Strasser learned at the beginning of the school year about her eighth-grade East Coast school trip to the nation’s capitol and the Big Apple. Lilly said her new artistic venture started out small, not as a business idea, but rather just to fulfill a neighbor’s request for her to create a couple dog portraits.

Andy said it didn’t take long for things to progress from there.

“We realized that, hang on a second here, people are willing to pay $40 for each of these portraits. What if we went into business together you and me? I’d manage the business, find the clients, and handle all the finances. And you be the creative force.”

“After that it (portraiture) spread to one of our other neighbors and her two dogs, who posted my drawing on Instagram and everyone started seeing it,” added Lilly.

So Andy cut a deal with Lilly. He told her, “For every $40 you get, $20 goes into your jar, and $20 goes into the jar for your trip. After that you can have all the money.”

Talking about her special technique and the process involved in pet portraiture, Lilly noted, “I’ve done all sorts of animals – cats, rabbits, horses – people as well.”

“She’s done 85 pet portraits in nine months, with 20 more in the queue,” said Andy, adding they’ve been advertising Lilly’s new business primarily through Facebook and Next Door social media. “I put a couple of her posters up there and just explained the story and it’s very endearing to people,” Andy added that Lilly’s work has received positive requests from people all over for her to memorialize their pets, living or deceased, with a customized portrait.

Discussing how she illustrates pets on her iPad, Lilly said Andy conveys a pet’s photo to her first. “I can just work digitally off that using my app called Sketches,” she said. “I import the picture, and then I can trace over it. I’ve done multiple people and animals. A lot of [the portraits] have grass or some kind of field in the background, and it can be challenging (to redo as a portrait). It’s a lot of work to find the shadows around it, the highlights, and what’s where.”

What advice would Lilly give to other budding young artists? “It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to get it the way that you want to,” she answered. “But if it’s something you’re honestly interested in, don’t give up on it. If it feels right, then try it.”

Lilly pointed out there’s times when she’s not been entirely pleased by how every portrait turned out. “But I’m honestly happy that I’m still here doing this because it does make me happy and makes me feel calm,” she said. “It’s really hard to concentrate on some things. But when it comes to art, it’s like I can concentrate on it completely.”

Could art be her true calling? “I’ve been doing art constantly since I was 6 years old,” she said. “I love art. It’s really meaningful to me and it’s something I would consider doing as a career.”