Beagle Prints by Mike Sibley and Michael O'Brien

The Beagle is deceptively hard to draw. It is a plain short-coated hound with no dramatic features, so there is nothing to lean on: no wire coat, no feathering, no exaggerated head. What you have is proportion, the low-set ear, the slightly pleading expression and the tricolour markings, and if any of those are off the result reads as a generic hound rather than as a Beagle.

Mike Sibley works in graphite and has been a professional artist for over twenty years, often spending more than two hundred hours on a single drawing. On a smooth-coated breed that time goes into modelling and expression rather than coat texture, which is precisely what a Beagle needs.

Michael O'Brien's version gives you a second reading of the same animal. It is worth looking at both. The same dog by two artists is a noticeably different picture once it is on a wall, and Beagle owners - who tend to have strong views about their dogs, usually affectionate and slightly exasperated - are quick to spot which one has caught the character.

Beagles also appear in the wider Dogs section alongside the other hounds if you want to compare across breeds.

Both prints are giclee reproductions on archival paper with fade-resistant inks, so nothing yellows over the years. Both are nineteen pounds ninety-nine, sized around 41 x 28 cm before mounting, which fits a standard off-the-shelf frame. Each has stayed in its wrapping since the day it was bought and has never been hung or displayed.