Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/130

 From birds on the wing we might pass to the reptiles on the ground, and those homely little gentleman the toad and frog are not to be despised.

When drawing these small people you must get close to their level. Try to pose them on a bank or raised surfaced.

There is something so solidly square about the shape of a toad that is not surprising that it lends its name to many curiously shaped rocks.

The European Frog, shown in Fig. 39, of glistening eye and shining back, is more elegant in shape than brother toad; his toes are slimmer, his nose more pointed.

Mark the upward tilt of the back, the slant to the top of the head and nose, and the long sweeping lines of the curiously shaped hind-legs. Not the forward and outward thrust of the strong little elbow, and the bandy-legged straddle of the front limbs.

Of all things a frog's mouth is the most curious. Look at the gape and length of it, and the muscles which extend from beyond the grin to the eye-cavity, and down again to the tiniest dot of a nostril piercing the blunt nose.

And if you should wish to portray the frog in action, you will be surprised at the enormous stretch of his hind-legs, one second folded in a close curve over the long-taloned feet and the next opening in a large sprawling S shape.

From the frog at the foot of the tree we might pass to the sightly squirrel on the branch above, cracking nuts and distributing shells over the heads of passers-by.

Squirrels are almost as difficult to study as birds. The only stationary ones are stuffed and in museums, and no matter how beautiful and natural stuffed things may look, there is always present the fixed glassy appearance that we invariably exaggerate when drawing. Therefore draw in museums only when debarred from drawing straight from Nature.

When you are drawing a squirrel do not let yourself be diverted by the magnificence of his tail from more important things. (Is he not called Sciurus&mdash;'Shadow-tail'?)