Wolf Warrior of Hyperborea

The Final Result

Step 01: Sketch

Step 02: Blocking in the background

Step 03: Restructuring/refining the background

Step 04: I begin working on the rock formation, starting with the nearest rock to get an overall feel of the colours and tone.

Step 05: I thus proceed with the adjoining rocks. At this point I separate the formation into 3 layers. Foreground (dark contrast) mid-ground (semi-dark to light contrast), then background (light to fade)

Step 06: Refining, reshaping the rocks whilst establishing the correct tone and contrast to make them really stick out. I also added a fade or mist to the background rocks to give the illusion of depth.

Step 07: Next I proceed to paint the wolf, starting with his head.

Step 08: Painting the wolf.

Step 09: Defining the fur whilst applying light and shadow.

Step 10: Paint more of the wolf whist adding more definition.

Step 11: Finish the basic paint and fur definition of the wolf.

Step 12: Complete the wolf by refining, defining and restructuring. I added mist and other atmospheric elements to establish the wolf's enormous size through blend and fade.

Step 13: Painting my subject whilst polishing the rest of the painting. The subject was really hard because I had to redo him multiple times as the proportions weren't exactly consistent.