Welcome to PawForge Art. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of pawforgeart.com (the "Site") and the services offered through it (the "Service"), operated by PawForge Art Studio ("we," "us," "our"). Please read them carefully before commissioning a portrait.
1. Acceptance of these terms
By accessing the Site, uploading a photograph, or commissioning a portrait, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, to commission a portrait or enter into a binding contract through the Service. By using the Service, you represent that you meet this requirement and have the legal capacity to accept these Terms.
3. Description of the Service
PawForge Art produces digitally-rendered, oil-painted-style portraits of pets. Each commission is generated from a photograph you upload, rendered in a historical artistic tradition you select, and printed on archival cotton-blend canvas, wrapped on stretcher bars and ready to hang. Fulfilment and shipping are performed by a third-party print partner.
The Service includes:
- Generating an AI-rendered, oil-painted-style portrait proof from your uploaded photograph
- Showing you a digital mockup of the proof on the canvas size you select
- Printing the approved portrait on archival cotton-blend canvas (gallery-wrap, ready to hang)
- Dispatching the canvas to your chosen address worldwide
- Optional gift handling — direct dispatch to the recipient with a personalised note
How portraits are produced
Portraits are generated using artificial-intelligence image models operated by trusted third-party providers (currently Google's Gemini family, accessed via OpenRouter, with optional upscaling via Replicate). The prompts that direct generation are designed by us to evoke historical artistic schools (e.g. Roman imperial portraiture, Edo-period Japanese woodblock, Napoleonic portraiture). Each commission is rendered uniquely from your photograph; no two portraits are identical.
4. Photographs you upload
You retain ownership of all photographs you upload. By uploading a photograph, you grant PawForge Art a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use the photograph for the sole purpose of generating, producing, and fulfilling your commissioned portrait, and to retain a copy as part of your order record (see retention period in our Privacy Policy).
By uploading a photograph, you represent and warrant that:
- You own the photograph or have full authorisation from the photographer to use it for this purpose
- The subject of the photograph is your own pet, or you have the pet owner's permission to commission a portrait
- The photograph does not contain any human as the primary subject, and any incidental humans visible have consented to its use
- The photograph does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights
- The photograph contains no unlawful, obscene, defamatory, or harmful content
We reserve the right to reject, without refund of any nominal deposit (none is currently taken), any photograph that violates these representations.
5. The commissioned portrait
Upon final payment for an approved proof, you acquire ownership of the specific physical canvas dispatched to you, and a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to display, reproduce, and share the digital portrait file for personal, non-commercial use (including social-media posts, prints in your home, gifts).
PawForge Art retains a non-exclusive license to display the rendered portrait (without your contact information) as part of its portfolio, gallery, marketing materials, and case studies. If you would prefer to opt out of portfolio inclusion, email curator@pawforgeart.com before fulfilment and we will respect the request.
6. Pricing, payment, and orders
All prices on the Site are listed in U.S. dollars (USD) unless otherwise indicated. Prices for canvases include the cost of printing and base packaging; shipping is calculated separately and shown to you before payment, based on your dispatch address.
Payment is processed by Stripe, our payment processor. PawForge Art does not store your full payment card details. By submitting payment, you authorise Stripe to charge the displayed total to your selected payment method. Your order is confirmed only after Stripe successfully completes the charge and we receive the corresponding webhook notification.
Try-before-you-buy: No charge is taken until you explicitly approve a generated proof and proceed to payment. You may restart the commission process at any point prior to that approval at no cost.
7. Production, dispatch, and delivery
Production typically takes 2–5 business days after approval. Standard shipping adds approximately 3–7 business days for U.S. domestic orders and 7–14 business days for international orders. These timeframes are estimates, not guarantees, and may be extended by carrier delays, peak-season volumes, customs processing, or address-validation issues.
Risk of loss and title for canvases pass to you upon delivery to the carrier. We will, however, replace or refund any canvas that is lost in transit, arrives damaged, or arrives materially different from the approved proof — see the Refund Policy.
International orders, customs, and duties
International recipients may be subject to customs duties, import taxes, or fees imposed by their country's customs authority. These charges are the responsibility of the recipient and are not reflected in your purchase price or shipping quote at checkout. PawForge Art cannot predict, prepay, or refund these charges.
8. Cancellations, refunds, and exchanges
Each canvas is custom-made for you and cannot be re-stocked or resold. Our complete cancellation, refund, and replacement policy is available at /legal/refund and incorporated into these Terms by reference.
9. Intellectual property
The Site, including its design, layout, copy, logos, brand marks, underlying generation prompts, and aggregated portfolio of works, is the intellectual property of PawForge Art and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable laws.
The historical artistic traditions referenced in the Service (e.g. Roman imperial portraiture, Edo-period nobility, Napoleonic military portraiture) are part of the broader cultural public domain. Their use as descriptive titles for collections confers no exclusive claim by PawForge Art and is not endorsed by, nor affiliated with, any government, museum, or estate.
10. Copyright infringement claims (DMCA)
PawForge Art respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material on the Site, or a portrait commissioned through the Service, infringes your copyright, you may submit a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") to:
- Email: curator@pawforgeart.com with the subject line "DMCA Notice"
Your notice must include:
- Your physical or electronic signature
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed
- Identification of the material on the Site or in a commission you believe to be infringing, with sufficient detail for us to locate it
- Your contact information (address, telephone, email)
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, agent, or law
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the owner's behalf
11. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Use the Service to commission portraits of subjects other than your own pet, or a pet for which you have explicit permission
- Upload photographs of human subjects as the primary subject without their explicit consent
- Upload photographs that infringe any third party's intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights
- Upload photographs containing unlawful, obscene, harassing, defamatory, or harmful content
- Reverse-engineer, scrape, or attempt to extract the underlying generation prompts, models, or system architecture
- Use automated tools (bots, crawlers, scrapers) to interact with the Service except for legitimate search-engine indexing
- Bypass or attempt to bypass any Site security feature or rate limit
- Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of these Terms
Violation of these acceptable-use rules may result in cancellation of your order without refund and termination of your access to the Service.
12. Disclaimers
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
PawForge Art does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of harmful components, or that the generated portraits will meet any subjective standard of likeness or aesthetic preference. The proof step exists so you may decline at no cost if the result does not meet your expectations.
13. Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, PawForge Art AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AND AFFILIATES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES) ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SERVICE.
OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU ACTUALLY PAID TO US FOR THE COMMISSION GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (USD $100), WHICHEVER IS GREATER.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so portions of the above limitations may not apply to you.
14. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless PawForge Art, its officers, employees, agents, and affiliates from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your breach of these Terms; (b) your violation of any law or third- party right (including intellectual-property rights) in connection with photographs you upload or your use of the Service; or (c) your wilful misconduct.
15. Force majeure
PawForge Art shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance to the extent caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, pandemics, government action, internet outages, third-party service-provider failures (including our print, payment, or AI providers), shipping carrier disruptions, or natural disasters.
16. Modifications to the Service and these Terms
We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the Service at any time, including the availability of any feature or collection. We will not be liable to you or to any third party for any such modification.
We may also revise these Terms from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be communicated via email to active patrons. Your continued use of the Service after a revision constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
17. Governing law and dispute resolution
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wisconsin, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.
Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall first be addressed informally — please email curator@pawforgeart.com with the subject "Dispute" and a brief description, and we will work in good faith to resolve the matter within 30 days. If we cannot resolve the dispute informally, it shall be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under its applicable Streamlined Arbitration Rules, seated in Wisconsin (with hearings conducted by video where the parties agree). You and PawForge Art both waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in any class, collective, or representative action.
18. Severability and waiver
If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any right or provision will not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
19. Entire agreement
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and Refund Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and PawForge Art regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.
20. Contact
Questions about these Terms? Reach the studio at curator@pawforgeart.com.