After I wasn't completely happy with this when I first posted it - just didn't look right. First thing I realized that was incorrect was I forgot some shadowing on the pants. Then, a comment about flatness of the image also had me going back to look at it a while (because I agreed) to try and figure out what it was that made it look flat. Turned out I made one big mistake on lighting.

While I drew most of it assuming a top right light source, the background that it was based on had a top left and forward light source, and I didn't significantly change that to fit the picture. The two conflicting light sources subconsciously have the affect of cancelling one another out.

So, some re-rendering of the light sourcing fixed up the background and another few layers of shadows were added to help further define the dimension of the feet as well. So here's take II of CAT's purdy footpaws - enjoy!

Original post (the backstory):

Ah... so this picture has quite a story behind it! It started back in May while I was at CAThulu's for an art night. I was coming back from the kitchen and noticed her feet in a really cool pose while she was drawing. CAThulu's used to me staring at her feet, heh - they're very nice. ;) Anyway, I said "Whoa" and she asked what it was and I mentioned the pose was nice. She looked down at them then back and said "Got your camera?"

I did have it, and I took a couple reference pictures of the pose. I figured I might be able to use it to draw an anthro in the same pose. After some tinkering, I decided that I could use the background and some parts of the original two images and just digitally colour them (the image was black and white for easier reference).

I drew the plantigrade wolf footpaws on digitally with a wacom (took about 5 different attempts to get it right. When I had the shape down, I asked CAThulu what colour she would be if she were a wolf. Then I asked if she'd paint her toeclaws, she said "yep!" and when I asked what colour, she pointed to her toes at the nice rich green. :)

I added some toe rings because CAT often wears them too, and began the colouring process. It took many, many long hours to colour, render fur, shade, texture and shadow. It was all done by hand with Photoshop CS2.

Finished product - the yummy set of footpaws you'd get to see while watching CAThulu (in wolf form) working one the latest piece art; toes flexing a little from time to time, top foot rubbing along the bottom a little. Thanks for the awesome reference CAT! Enjoy!

PS: If you're interested in how this went from reference to finished picture, I have a PDF with pictures showing the progress in my scraps:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1434235/