Glowing Wolf

[Zehna]

Morning all!

I'm back again--looking for the help from all of the professional artists here at ConceptArt.

This is a piece I have been working on for quite some time now. The premise is a black wolf with cyan, slightly glowing markings.

The face has been mostly rendered--the body is still in the WIP phase. The commissioner has now decided, also, that he would like a slightly foggy cityscape in the background.

I'm looking for any critique you'd like to throw my way! How is the fur looking? Should the lighting make more contrast? What about the ambient, green-ish light? How could I add a bit more flare to this piece to make it 'pop'?

Thank you so much ahead of time! Anything you'd like to throw my way is helpful! (And as long as its objective critique, nothing hurts my feelings, so bombs away. )

[Lhune]

Hmm right now he's not reading like a black wolf at all. More like a purple wolf with white markings, mostly because the background now reads as black due to the contrast with the wolf.

I'm also spotting some faults in the anatomy of the wolf, you might want to study them a bit more. It's legs are far too short and thick, it's hind legs reach up far too high. Here's a ref of a sitting wolf for you:

[Zehna]

Thank you! I don't see the ref link or image.

I did follow an image for the wolf, however; when I did the commissioner told me he was too skinny, and asked me to beef up the muscle some more and dis-reguard most of the wolf anatomy itself. Of course, there are some things I can't work around if I want him to look like a wolf, but as far as the muscle goes--that was asked for.

I see what you mean about the purple. Maybe I could eye-drop and work in some of the background color to his fur? Also, if I am going to do the background, if I made the background a bit lighter, perhaps eyedropping the color of the fur, would that make it look black? I know there are some tricks of going about this, because from what I've understood from some of Jason Chan's videos, the colors surrounding and inside of a piece are what our eyes go off of for colors--meaning, even if something isn't pure white, it may still look like it depending upon the surrounding darker colors... right?

[Zehna]

Thank you! I don't see the ref link or image.

I did follow an image for the wolf, however; when I did the commissioner told me he was too skinny, and asked me to beef up the muscle some more and dis-reguard most of the wolf anatomy itself. Of course, there are some things I can't work around if I want him to look like a wolf, but as far as the muscle goes--that was asked for.

I see what you mean about the purple. Maybe I could eye-drop and work in some of the background color to his fur? Also, if I am going to do the background, if I made the background a bit lighter, perhaps eyedropping the color of the fur, would that make it look black? I know there are some tricks of going about this, because from what I've understood from some of Jason Chan's videos, the colors surrounding and inside of a piece are what our eyes go off of for colors--meaning, even if something isn't pure white, it may still look like it depending upon the surrounding darker colors... right?

[Klaw]

Time for a trip to the 80's. There's a movie from 1980-something, called Ladyhawke. In the movie one of the characters turns into a Large black wolf at night. (It's based on an old French Fairytale). Anyway, lots of shots of a big black wolf in the moonlight. There's probably some good reference there for you, as far as black fur in the moonlight. And it was done before everybody was doing digital, so it's really a big black wolf. Maybe it helps, maybe not, but it's a good movie though. Like what you are doing so far. I would like to see the cyan markings blend into the fur a little though. But I really like this wolf!

[Tony Wallace]

Here's a cool pic, where the artist silhouetted the form of the wolf against a more vibrant night back drop, the highlighted the fur sparingly.

Zehna, I feel for you on the client prerogative. Ultimately it's what makes the client happy that's important, but sometimes when you're technically inclined the results can drive us crazy. I think it looks great, even without all the anatomy just so.