Golden Retriever Print by Brian Hupfield

The Golden Retriever is the dog most people picture when they think of a family dog, and it is harder to draw well than that popularity suggests. The coat is long, wavy and pale, which gives an artist almost no contrast to work with - the animal can easily flatten into a cream-coloured shape with a face attached. What has to carry it is light: the way it catches along the feathering on the chest, the back of the legs and the tail, and the slight difference in tone where the coat changes direction.

Hupfield's line is looser and warmer than a tight graphite study would be, and on this breed that suits it. A Golden Retriever drawn too precisely starts to look like a show photograph. Drawn a little more freely it looks like a dog somebody actually owns.

The expression is the other thing to judge a drawing of this breed by. Goldens have a particular soft, willing look about the eyes, and it is the reason people keep them. A drawing that misses it is technically a retriever and emotionally nothing.

Golden Retrievers also appear in the Labrador section, which holds seven prints across yellow, black, chocolate and golden, and in the broader Retriever and Working dogs sections if you want to browse more widely before deciding.

This is a giclee print on archival paper with fade-resistant inks, so nothing yellows over a decade on a wall. It is nineteen pounds ninety-nine, sized around 41 x 28 cm before mounting, which fits a standard off-the-shelf frame. The print has stayed in its wrapping since the day it was bought and has never been hung or displayed.