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So You Want To Design A Wolf Character ...

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This is what I get for working in my sketchbook and following Youtube suggestions. I cannot stop watching terribly done wolf animation cartoons. God save me, I can't. I don't know what it is about the voice actors doing monotonous reads into crackling, static-filled microphones, the awful intros, the same story premise done over and over and over again, blatant disregard for copyright, clumsy animation, and emotion that is always emo and always overwrought.
It's like crack. Knock-off Ginga Weed Okami Balto crack, but still crack.
I watched one in particular that must have been a total bitch to animate simply because the artist had put so much stuff on the wolves's faces. Jewelry, markings, scars: it was all crammed in there. And it couldn't hide the fact that all of the characters looked exactly the same.
Which, really, is the problem with wolf art in the first place. I dare you to find a bigger walking cliche' than a wolf character. It's bad enough they're inherent Mary Sues for some reason, but 99% of the art with wolves looks exactly the same. It's somehow become inescapable, because all of the resource pools for it are the same. And the flame wars that result are tragically hilarious, mostly because they're born out of sheer ignorance.
The experienced artist, however, knows that wolves are so overdone that you've really gotta go pretty far out there to find something new. It's not impossible; it's just more of an effort than most of the Canis Bardus lovers on DA are willing to do.
So I thought I'd put something together that would help them discover their ignorance.
All art belongs to their respective owners and all that.

... Crap, I forgot Wolf's Rain.

Sitting wolf Lineart belongs to: :iconcunningfox:

First original wolf design belongs to :iconsketchinthoughts:


More examples of awesome silhouette work for wolves: wolfpearl.deviantart.com/art/C…
lundiva.deviantart.com/art/Mod…
starhorse.deviantart.com/art/W…
noukah.deviantart.com/art/Char…
daisy-the-cat.deviantart.com/a…

And for realism/other animals: stormwing93.deviantart.com/art…

EDIT: I have to admit, in the few years since I posted this thing, the large majority of angry comments are from young artists with no grasp of good design, poor rendering skills period, and not nearly enough exposure to the strong principles of art. I'm sorry if you suck at drawing, but if you followed the tutorial and maybe looked at design principles and started incorporating them into your work, you wouldn't suck at drawing so much and I could actually tell the difference between your characters!
Also draw real wolves. That might help.
And for those of you who have been helped by this tutorial: you're awesome. And growing as artists instead of whining about how mean I am.
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GingerTheBarnOwl's avatar

as someone wanting to design some wolf characters, this is EXTREMELY helpful. will keep this handy during my design process. thanks a bunch. 👍