Feathered ears, round eyes, your exact markings

How this coat prints

Cavaliers come in four colours, and they split into two shirt problems. Blenheims and tricolours are white with patches, and white prints brightest against a dark shirt: navy makes chestnut look richer and keeps the white crisp, while berry warms the whole picture. Rubies and black-and-tans are solid-coloured. A ruby glows on either dark shirt, but a black-and-tan carries more black than any other cavalier and shows more of itself on something light. The ear feathering is long, silky and often wavy, and it holds its detail on a shirt as long as the photo resolves individual strands.

The photo to use

Brush the ears first: the feathering is the longest hair on the dog and the first to tangle, and whatever shape it's in goes onto the shirt. Then give the ears room, since they hang well below the jaw and a crop tight to the face cuts the fringe off at the chin. Face your cavalier toward a window; the eyes are large and dark, and a catchlight in each is what stops them reading as two black buttons. If your Blenheim has the chestnut spot on top of the head, hold the phone a little above eye height so the crown of the skull is in view.

Presets that suit this dog

Your Majesty

The dog under the jewelled crown on the Your Majesty tile is a Blenheim cavalier, ermine cape and all, so this look was made with the breed in it; for a dog named after a king, the crown is simply accurate.

The Dad Stare

The Dad Stare rests its wire reading glasses low on the muzzle, below the eyes, so the big dark eyes that do all of a cavalier's persuading look out over the rims, drawn in one warm brown ink.

Soft Stitch

The Soft Stitch tile's model is a spaniel with long, wavy ears, framed by an embroidered wreath of lavender and daisies, and a cavalier's feathered ears fall into that frame just as naturally.

Questions