Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/139

 must decide in our minds the chief characteristics of our models.

What with the distorted short legs and long body of the dachshund, the stocky sturdy build of the wire-haired terrier, the prodigious muscle and width of the bulldog's body, we have ample variety.

We must bear in mind the general build of the dog. If not, we are apt to give the Cairn legs as long as the pug, the schipperke ears as starklly pointed as those of the Alsatian wolfhound. It is easier, of course, to draw the breeds that have short and silky hair than those that are clothed in long plumes of fur, for then we can see the shape of their limbs, the symmetry of their bodies. A bull-terrier is easier to draw than a sky-terrier, a greyhound easier than a borzoi.

Here we have the head of Benjamin (an old English terrier) with ear cocked and eye alert.

Observe first the long barrel shape of the head, then the blunt muzzle and the rounded nostril. Having marked the position and angle of the head, we can next note the breadth and slope of the round forehead, the angle of the eye, the position of the far eye (indicated and accentuated by an eyelash), and the curve of the muzzle.

The mouth is partially hidden by the soft white hair (and there is nothing softer in Nature than the mouth of an animal.) Look carefully at the receding&mdash;slightly receding&mdash;nose and jaw. The protruding under-jaw gives at once the suggestion of the bulldog strain. The massive, protuberant under-jaw is characteristic of that breed.

Ben has a full eloquent eye. The overhanging triangular flap of the ear lends a sharp and useful accent to the rounded shape behind the eye, and behind that we can perceive the full lobe and root of the ear.

Sambo (Fig. 42), mystified by a frog, is yapping away in a crouching but vigorous position&mdash;in which you may be sure he did not remain very long; hence the absence of the other