In the Studio

Last night I worked on the wolf some, after “killing” the background a bit by blurring it out to push it further away from the viewer. Because to give a sense of distance, and the focal point being the wolf, too much detail in the far background makes it seem like it’s right there at the same level with the wolf, when in fact we know it’s not. So, I blurred out the tree line with a dry brush, rubbing the pastels to soften the lines thus blurring it out.

The wolf himself, his head needed to be “poofier” and his muzzle smaller. After compare measuring some of his dimensions - done by using my thumb and index finger to get a rough idea how long something is, not using a ruler - I compared the distance from the top of his head by his left ear, down to where his muzzle jutted out, and found that the distance (in the reference photo) was fairly close to the length of the foreleg’s bottom side. So I had that part correct. But the muzzle still seemed too large. So I compared the same length of his forehead to where it comes down from the top of his muzzle down his neck. In the photo, the length is a few clumps of hair down his neckline under his chin, yet, in my piece, the distance was the same size as from the top of his muzzle to his chin line. So definitely way too thick in there. So I re-drew his entire snout. Gotta love pastels!!! All these past months I’ve had it drilled into my head that nothing can beat oils as far as a fine art medium. Well, by golly, I can do anything oils can do with these pastels, so they are definitely MY medium!

Soooo here is the progress photo where you can see the changes. At first glance you may not notice the difference, but compare it to the photo underneath it which was the previous stage and you will see a big change in the wolf.

And the prior version for quick comparison: