Wolfiiieee <3

Beautiful sketch ^^

Thank you verrah much :)

Looks very good! Like a old wise wolf who have seen it all.

Haha excellent :) --I was trying to get that look in his eyes.

Great sketch, Sekhmet.
Yeah, it's always nice to get back to the roots.
Here in Europe, drawing from a photo is allowed.
Despite what many furries say, it's not a ripoff, nor a copy: it's a personal interpretation.

Considering I have no access to live wolves for practice, I have to learn off of something :P

Same for me if I wanna draw hyenas, wolves, lions, tigers, antelopes... well, even foxes and weasels.
Only some furries and all trolls make a big deal about referencing anyway.

All artists should reference. Wether it be from life or from a photo. The difference is to know how to use reference. When making original artwork to sell, or if it is for a client, closely referencing like this isn't a good idea. When I need reference in those cases, I make a file with tons of reference of the subject to get a sense of the anatomy--I am not copying, I am vaguely referring to the anatomy of the creature and I make my own interpretation.

In this upload's case, it was just practice. I am not making money off of this, its merely a study that will go nowhere in my sketchbook--and the photographer has been credited.

Should people be curious, this is the little calendar I practice off of :) http://www.belabaliko.com/belabalik.....alendar.html#0

Well, I've already had an exhibition, some years ago, after some lessons. I exposed drawings heavily referenced from photos, for practice, and I said it was drawn from a photo. It was perfectly alright.
When I wanna draw a hyena

... that looks realistic, I'll look at some photos. Same for wolves. Then I'll make the doodle match with the pose and the scenery to draw the complete drawing.
Except when one wants a drawing exactly referenced from a photo, I'd always make an original piece, cuz it's more fun.

(sorry, I hit a wrong key)

Very pretty!

Wonderful profeesional realism on the wolf. I love how the head floof surrounds the head as many real wolves tend to have, and that it makes the head look roundish. The mostly thick use of outlines is very artsy.

Good thing about using photos for reference. I am usually use photos for refence or inspiration for my drawings due to how difficult it is to get anyone or anything to pose for my drawings, like animals, or even sadder, to draw people who's body builds are like the ones I want to draw.

Just beautiful! Love this!

wonderful work, and nice atmosphere.

Pantone markers, do they have anything to do with Adobe?

I tend to use photos off the internet myself, sometimes even for comissioned work, but I never work so closely that someone could do a slideshow because of OMGtracing... I just don't have the skills. :)
the audience is funny sometimes. a prelim sketch of a character to be designed gathers more attention that an accurate drawing of a massai painted dog... feh, furries. XD

heehee thanks.

Sort of..Adobe does have pantone colour charts in the swatches section. Pantone is basically a collection of colors graphic designers(mostly) often use. The colours were made into sets of markers. They were initially made by the letraset brand --only they replaced them by a new model called "tria" markers. The product (here in canada) anyways, didn't do well. We no longer sell them at our store. So I have a bunch of old markers now :)

Yes, reference is totally okay depending on how you use it. People seem to gasp and say its 'cheating' , which is absolutely ridiculous. More artists should use reference as a matter of fact. Really gets you to study your subject appropriately. For example far too often in the fandom I see cats drawn with long canid-like muzzles. Paying attention to the subject through reference would give a closer, true resemblance to the initial subject.

aha, that clears it. the last time I saw letraset markers in store is a long time ago, and they were water-based. aside that the brand seems to sell mostly gel pens and ball pens here.
the two downtown stores have reduced their Faber color pencil set vastly, and I think they will reduce their copic set as well. and one of them has thrown out almost all artist paper... looks like I need to pick out an online shop for the future.

at a german furry forum there showed newbies up which demanded the skilled artist's "shortcuts to free drawing", which meant, no references. and we did all we could to convince them to look at reality instead... no idea where that idea came up from, maybe from the anime people?
anyway, all the illustrators use photo reference. Boris Vallejo even showed the process of it in one of those PaperTiger portfolio books. so why shouldn't a little animefurry artist not use one?
the first time I relied really heavily on references (should have done it earlier; call me stubborn) was when I put a D&D character to paper last year, a wemic/liontaur. I used photos of animals and a plastic lioness by Papo and what litle I know of human anatomy, and I think it shows. when even an artist who said she refuses to draw taurs said she could imagine drawing this one then maybe I did something right. ^^