Song of the Ice Wolf - Work in Progress 4

"How lonely is the night without the howl of a wolf."
~ Unknown

I've learned so much about this piece. How to render and how not to render. I still have a further amount to do but overall he is almost finished. I haven't done a wolf before - not like this. I think I need to study more wolves and do more in order to understand further the nature of how they come together. However I have really enjoyed seeing this beautiful creature come to life from the blackness of the paper

Song of the Ice Wolf - Work in Progress 3

"Only a mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf."
~ Aldo Leopold"

Slowly but surely this wolf is coming to life. I've rendered yet more layers over the darks. I've learned a lot from this composition and perhaps a little more about myself.

Song of the Ice Wolf - Work in Progress 2

We listened for a voice crying in the wilderness. And we heard the jubilation of wolves!”
~ Durwood L. Allen

Now I've managed to set the layers I've started to put more definition to the fur and the features of this wolf. It's taken some thinking and study plus a lot of patience to understand how this composition is evolving. So far so good. He still looks like a wolf. I've added in further tones of warm and cold greys, black, blue and a very light pink, plus a very light ochre then over laid again with warm grey and lots of white.

Song of the Ice Wolf - Work in Progress 1

"Anyone who has ever heard it when the land was covered with a blanket of snow and elusively lighted by shimmering moonlight, will never forget the strange, trembling wolf cry."
~ Unknown

The wolf has always held a place in legend. Revered or reviled this majestic predator has existed for millions of years. The wolf is considered a totem animal in many cultures. Wolves have been hunted and exterminated from many regions of the world. Man has a bad flaw of destroying anything our species cannot or does not want to understand. The wolf is the wilderness we cannot tame nor should we try to.

This is the first stage of the rendering. Medium: Coloured pencil on Black Bockingford Paper.