Lizzie Penninger

My name is Lizzie Penninger, and I’ve been passionate about painting and drawing for as long as I can remember. In 2020, during online school, I began painting portraits of my dogs, Bella and Daisy. After creating countless pieces featuring them, I decided to expand my practice by finding more dog models. That’s when I launched my TikTok account, @skinnyyyyyy_123, where I began offering custom pet portrait giveaways for my followers.
I fell in love with sharing my art progress on social media and hosting giveaways after receiving such positive and encouraging responses from people across my account. After COVID-19, I took a nearly two-year break from painting as life got busier—until I joined the IB program during my junior year of high school.

As part of the IB program, students complete a component called CAS (Creativity, Activity, and Service), which inspired me to begin painting again—this time with a purpose. I started creating pet portraits for a local no-kill animal shelter, Pawmetto Lifeline, as part of my service work. Over the last few years, I’ve painted portraits of six of their special case dogs: Carrie (2020), Beau (2023), Cash (2024), Cooper (2024), Lucey (2025), and Keaton (2025).

Most recently, I collaborated with @mykomushroom—a dog-focused social media account that has supported my work since 2020—to help share my art with a wider community of dog lovers across social media platforms.

After seeing how many people were interested in purchasing pet portraits, I decided to create this website to begin selling my artwork as I continue to grow as an artist in Clemson University’s Visual Arts (B.F.A.) program.