John's preference is for photos taken at (or close to) the pet's eye level... as opposed to standing over them looking straight down.
The photos you provide will tell John everything he needs to know about what your pet looks like. When he looks at your pics, he’s looking for general coloring and markings, ear shape, nose and eye color, tail length, etc. But, he is especially looking for all of the "little" things (one ear up/one ear down, white tips on the toes, subtle freckling, etc.).
Think of it this way: You are sending John photos of what you think your pet looks like. In return, John is going to send you a caricature of what he thinks your photos look like. In other words, if you want the artist to draw your dog with her ears up, dont only send the artist photos with her ears back.
The more photos, the better! There's no such thing as "too many". John will be able to get a lot of valuable information from the different angles. But, if you are only able to upload a single photo, he can only really do a caricature of THAT photo under the assumption that you want the caricature to be based on THAT pose, facial expression, etc…
John will work with whatever you're able to provide, though.
For multiple pets in one illustration, you DO NOT need to send photos of your pets together. However, group photos do help in size comparison. Please provide multiple photos of EACH subject to be drawn.