Smarty-butts are difficult to draw, but I tell my naive trusting students that drawing is drawing and no subject is more difficult than any other. The difference is in our ability to judge the difference between our drawing and its subject. Anyone can tell when you screw up on a human subject--moreso on portraits because if the space between nose and lips changes an eighth of an inch it becomes a different person--if, however I misplace the branch of a tree or the whiskeer of a beaver by a fraction of an inch, no one is the wiser (except perhaps the beaver expert who keeps sending me nasty notes about the inaccuracies in my depictions) So chances are, your beaver drawings are as "wrong" as your people drawings, it's just that no one can tell.
That said, I choose not to draw horses.
Portraits are difficult because there are three people to please: yourself, the sitter and the sitter's mother. It's a no-win situation. I only do portraits of dead orphans.
mick
"All black and white, nice." ~ golders
