Naked wolf lady - help please!

[Springly]

So I'm getting stuck into this, but I can't seem to get the interaction between the two figures working right. I was wondering if anyone had some insight? Anything else you'd like to mention is cool too. It would be great if someone had a usefull reference pic, I just really can't find one. Horses etc. only help to an extent- the wolf is a fair bit bigger.

Thanks!

[TinyBird]

The wolf's face is really flat. There's no sense of depth that the muzzle would be extending from the face. I'd also re-check the girl's facial anatomy too. Especially her mouth seems lopsided and considering the title says "lady" but the head proportion says this is a pretty young girl I'd re-check that too depending on which you meant.
As for the pose, I'd rather take a camera or recruit a friend or family member to pose for you while sitting on top of a bunch of pillows or something.



remember that the back is really wide, so depending on her pose she'd have to spread her legs lot more to sit comfortably.

[Stoat]

I kind of like it.

[Elwell]

I kind of like it.

Me too.

[Springly]

Thanks for this, Tinybird! Lady is a bit of a misnomer, going for more of a weird skinny wood-sprite sort of chick than a real woman. Hence crazy eyes. She has a lot of issues but I'll try and figure them out.

Hah you're totally right about the mouth. I've been staring at it and not seeing that it's really tiny on the right side of her face. Thanks for the pics too, but tbh the way she sat on those wolves really bothered me through that whole movie, and I'm not sure why. I guess it felt just kind of weird that she'd keep her knees so high without having stirrups...

I'll do something 'bout the muzzle, promise, gotta sleep first, actually. Oops.

Thanks others for saying nice things, g'night

[Charlie D]

Might be wrong, but probably the reason it does not seem is right to you is because in the back of your mind you know the Wolf lady is in wrong position if sat astride the Wolf.

If you scaled up the dinosaur in Gurneys image, the character riding would be obscured by the head/neck. Same effect if you scaled up a horse/wolf etc with a rider.





For ref help, try Dinotopia, films like Lord Of Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter.

[Charlie D]

If you can't find images, use modeling software.

You don't need to model a Wolf or Character. All you need to do is reduce your character/animal to the simple primitives like cubes/cylinders to help you with these kind of problems.



http://www.blender.org/

http://sketchup.google.com/

[Candra H]

Hey, I really like this idea. you're going in the right direction with the wolf, I think, though the difference in size between him and the girl is a bit off for me. Maybe make her a bit bigger if you can.

I think what might work better with the wolf's head is if you show the ears. I konw they're supposed to be tucked back but you'd still see them and without them, he looks kind of naked.

I did a quick google and found this photo. It's not exactly like yours and facing the wrong way, but it shows how you could get the same snarling expression without having to chop the ears off.

(I imagine this is a copyrighted image so don't copy it - just use as source)


Good luck!

Edit; Damn! Photo wont show. I'll keep trying...

[Candra H]

Actually, forget what I said about showing the ears. I just found this -

Snarling Wolf

[Jyoung]

one thing i would mention is the fact that wolves don't run like horses. the way the spine moves is very diffrent from a horses.I dont know if you have the special extended edition of lord of the rings The Two Towers, but if you do or know someone who does watch the bonus disks. On them they talk about the difficulties they had with the wargs. (which are wolves) and go into detail about how to place a rider on an animal which "haunches" as it runs.

dogs move much the same way as wolves but i doubt you will find it easy to strap a gi joe to one.

[Springly]

Getting there... muzzle looks a bit dodge-and-burny now because I dodge and burned it. But I'll work back in.

I'm happier with the position now, I brought her knee up, spread the legs a little more, added some more wolf-body on the right so it looks slightly more side-on. Looks less like she's sitting off-center now... I might try and render it and see if it comes good once the fur interaction is established. Here's hoping.
Lesson learned anyway: Don't skip the proper sketch -.-

Thanks everyone who's commented in the meantime, y'all are champs.

Charlie: this was super helpful. I realised I really felt like she was leaning to her left too much.

Candra: I chucked in a little bit of ear for you, I think it might be right? Not sure. I think in the second pic you posted you can see a some ear, but it's obscured by being black.

Jyoung: This sounds amaaazing. I wish I had this on hand... I'll ask my friends if they have it because I can't seem to find it on youtube.

[akkibox]

Hey Springly--I can see a few issues I have with this piece but I'm something of an amateur myself so feel free to disagree.



The width of the wolf is far too large for her to sit that way. She could hang off the side, but then her right leg would lie on the wolf's back and it would be implied by her pose. Right now, her pose looks as if her leg is just like the left one, hanging off the other side of the wolf. I hope that makes sense.

Also, with the wolf's face, his right eye is entirely too flat. The angle it creates with his muzzle is too sharp and makes the face asymmetrical. Hope this helps!

[dolmen]

the effect the muzzle has right now is that of a sadistic smile. Snarling is emphasized by furrows between the eyes. These furrows crease their way down the muzzle. a more ragged curl of the upper lip would also give a better snarl.

The jaw of your wolf hangs a little off to the left aswell. This you likely intended but it humanizes the expression and makes it look less viscious and more impish in character.