This is a submission for Weekend Challenge: Dog Days Edition
PawArt
Every bark becomes art.
Your dog. Their bark. Their masterpiece.
Most pet art begins with a human choosing the colors, the mood, and the style. But dogs already bring a personality of their own. Their voices can be bright, gentle, restless, or wonderfully dramatic. PawArt begins there, by listening to the dog and letting the bark guide the canvas.
What I BuiltThe simple idea that started PawArt |
I wanted to answer one playful question:
What would a bark look like?
PawArt is a mobile app that turns a dog's photo and a few seconds of barking into a unique portrait. I like to explain it this way: the photo tells PawArt who to paint, while the bark helps decide how to paint them.
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PHOTO Meet the artist |
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BARK Hear their voice |
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GEMINI Shape the style |
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PAWART Reveal the portrait |
A lively bark might inspire bright color, bold contrast, and restless brushwork. A softer recording might create deeper tones, gentle texture, and more breathing room in the composition. It means the dog has a real influence on the final result instead of simply appearing inside a style someone else picked.
The result screen reveals the bark fingerprint behind the piece, including energy, pitch, rhythm, intensity, bark count, and pauses. The original bark can also be replayed beside the artwork it helped create.
One thing that mattered to me: PawArt does not claim to translate a dog's thoughts or feelings. It only uses measurable sound characteristics as creative controls for the artwork.
DemoThe complete experience in sixty seconds |
One bark becomes a portrait in one minute
The recording studio and the finished masterpiece.
A small note from behind the demo
My dog is at home with my family while I am currently staying in a hostel. I used a saved photo and played a recorded bark from another phone. The app still captured that sound and sent it through the real analysis and generation flow shown in the video.
How I Built ItWhat happens after the record button is pressed |
I wanted the app to feel easy even though quite a lot happens behind it. Once the user taps Create PawArt, the process moves through three small stages.
01 · Capture
I built the mobile app with Expo, React Native, and TypeScript. The user chooses a dog photo, records a short bark, and sees a live waveform move with the sound. I spent a lot of time on this part because recording audio can easily feel like filling out a form. I wanted it to feel more like giving the dog a tiny studio session.
The photo and recording then move into private Supabase Storage buckets. No Google credential ever enters the mobile app.
02 · Listen
A Supabase Edge Function securely sends both the photo and audio to Gemini 3.7 Flash through Google's official API.
Gemini looks for measurable qualities such as energy, pitch, rhythm, intensity, bark count, and pauses. PawArt then turns those qualities into a visual language.
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HIGH ENERGY Dynamic composition |
BRIGHT PITCH Luminous palette |
RAPID RHYTHM Active brushwork |
STRONG SOUND Bold contrast |
> Style: Expressive impressionism
> Palette: Warm gold, orange, and crimson
> Composition: Energetic and alive
> Brushwork: Sweeping and bold
I chose a structured response because I did not want the generated image to feel random. It lets the app show how the voice influenced the canvas, and it also keeps each stage predictable enough to build around.
03 · Paint
The original photo and the new art direction are passed to Gemini 3.1 Flash Image, also known as Nano Banana 2.
The prompt asks the model to preserve the dog's recognizable eyes, ears, muzzle, coat colors, markings, and proportions. The bark still controls the visual treatment, so a different recording creates a meaningfully different portrait. Getting this balance right was the most interesting part of the build.
One dog. A different bark. A different canvas.
Why I chose Supabase
I used Supabase because it gave me one place for the files, database, and server logic. More importantly, it meant the Google API key could stay on the server instead of ending up inside the Expo app.
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STORAGE Private photos, audio, and art |
EDGE FUNCTION Secure Google AI requests |
POSTGRES Bark and artwork metadata |
SIGNED URLS Temporary access to results |
The repository includes the database migration, private Storage buckets, file restrictions, Row Level Security policies, secrets configuration, and Edge Function deployment steps. The complete walkthrough is available in the Supabase setup guide inside the README.
CodeRun it, inspect it, or build on top of it |
PawArt is open source.
The repository contains the Expo app, Supabase backend, database migration, and Google AI Edge Function.
PawArt
Every bark becomes art.
Your dog. Their bark. Their masterpiece.
Built for the DEV Weekend Challenge: Dog Days Edition
Competing for Best Use of Google AI
What is PawArt?
PawArt is a mobile creative studio that turns a dog's photo and a short bark recording into a recognizable, one-of-a-kind portrait.
The bark is not treated as a secret language. PawArt measures acoustic characteristics—energy, pitch, rhythm, intensity, bark count, pauses, and duration—and uses them as creative controls for palette, composition, contrast, and brushwork.
PawArt never claims to translate a dog's thoughts, needs, intentions, or emotions. Sound characteristics guide the artwork only.
The experience
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 01 · Add a photo | Take a clear dog photo or choose one from the gallery. |
| 02 · Record the bark | Capture 3–10 seconds with a live microphone waveform. |
| 03 · Read the sound | Gemini analyzes measurable acoustic characteristics. |
| 04 · Find the art |
Want to create your own PawArt?
Everything needed to run, understand, and extend the project is waiting in the repository.
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OPEN THE SOURCE
Explore the complete PawArt code |
BUILD IT YOURSELF
Follow the full Supabase guide |
SEE HOW IT IS SECURED
Understand secrets and private files |
Prize CategoriesBest Use of Google AI |
One model listens. One model paints.
Gemini 3.7 FlashStudies the photo and bark, then writes the creative direction. |
Nano Banana 2Preserves the dog and turns that direction into the final portrait. |
Google AI is at the center of the idea, rather than being something I added just to qualify for the category. Gemini turns an ordinary recording into useful art direction. Nano Banana 2 turns that direction into an image while keeping the actual dog recognizable. Together, they connect the dog's voice to the finished canvas.
Every dog already has a voice.
PawArt gives that voice a canvas.
I built PawArt because the small sounds we hear every day can hold memories. A familiar bark is part of a dog's personality and part of the feeling of having them nearby. Turning it into art feels more personal to me than adding a filter to a photo. The final portrait is shaped by both how the dog looks and how they sound.
PawArt started as a fun weekend idea, but somewhere during the build it began to feel like a small way of saving a moment with a companion. If someone uses it, smiles at the result, and immediately wants to try another bark, then it has done exactly what I hoped it would do.
Your dog. Their bark. Their masterpiece.
Every bark becomes art.
Top comments (1)
i tried to build something genuine and fun in this short time, hope u enjoyed and i appreciate your valuable thoughts! 💖