Steel blue and gold, down to the topknot
A yorkie isn't one colour but two: steel blue down the back, rich gold on the head and legs, and a line between them that is drawn differently on every dog. That split, the small upright ears and whatever the groomer did last week are what make yours yours, and every bit of it comes from your photo.
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How this coat prints
Yorkie hair is fine and silky with no undercoat to soften it, so a camera sees it more like human hair than fur: long, smooth highlights wherever the light lands. That sheen is what makes a yorkie look expensive on a shirt, and it means colour matters more here than texture. The gold on the head is the bright part, and black is the shirt that makes it glow, while the steel blue reads against it as a deep blue-grey rather than vanishing. On the light side, chambray keeps the gold warm against a cool ground; butter and ivory sit too close to the gold to frame it.
The photo to use
Shoot by daylight, never under a warm lamp: steel blue is the first colour a yellow bulb ruins, turning it a muddy brown-grey, and the artwork can only keep the colour your photo recorded. Turn the flash off as well, because silky hair throws a flash back as bright white streaks. If the fall on the head is long, tie it up or clip it back so both eyes are clear; dark eyes in a gold face are the centre of a yorkie portrait, and a curtain of hair over them prints as a smudge. Bring the dog up to your level rather than lying on the floor yourself; on the sofa beside you is easiest.
Presets that suit this dog
Yorkies were the fashionable lapdogs of Victorian England, and Cool Mom keeps up the tradition: pearls, the topknot left uncovered, and a lemon-print scarf whose thin blue border echoes the steel blue down the back.
Yorkies were bred to catch rats in the mills of northern England long before they sat on laps, and the hoodie, gold chain and neon alley are the scene that remembers it.
Night Owl puts warm café-window light on the face against a navy skyline, and a yorkie's silky hair takes that light like polished metal, so the gold of the head burns brighter still. Black or pepper shirts only.
Questions
My yorkie was black and tan as a puppy and is turning blue. Which photo should I use?
Whichever stage you want to keep. Yorkie puppies are born black and tan and the black slowly clears to steel blue as they grow up, so a puppy photo prints a black-and-tan dog and a recent one prints the blue. The artwork follows the photo either way.
Will the steel blue print as blue or as grey?
As blue as your photo shows it. In daylight a yorkie's coat reads as a cool blue-grey; under indoor bulbs it drifts toward brown. The print keeps whichever of those your photo caught, so a daylight shot is the one to upload.
My yorkie has a puppy cut. Will it still read as a yorkie?
Yes. The haircut is part of how your dog looks, so it's kept, and the colour split, gold head over blue body, is what says yorkie at a glance whether the coat sweeps the floor or is clipped short.
Is this a shirt for my yorkie to wear?
No, it's for you: a heavyweight adult tee from S to 2XL with your yorkie printed across the chest. Clothes in yorkie sizes are a different shop altogether.
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