Character's Old Sultan

 These were the final designs for my two main characters the wolf and Old Sultan. I was really happy with how they turned out and the look and feel of them really suit the type of illustrations I am trying to produce. I think the shape and dark texture of the wolfs fur really make hime look menacing. The dog looks good as I think i have captured his innocence, but I have given him an almost dirty look - his fur looks tired and old and with no outline he's almost fading away. I purposely didn't give him an outline as it is meant to represent his ignored character within the story.

In terms of weaknesses I think that the wolf could look at bit more dangerous and the sharp white teeth could improve that image. I think in terms of the dog the colour might be an issue as its very hard to replicate the same effect and what is it going to look like when he's say side on or in a different position.

I face a huge problem with trying to replicate the quality of these as the marks and way I produced them were experimental, so whether I can replicate that same feel and look will be a challenge. Overall though I am satisfied with my attempt.

  Process 

I started out with mark making and set out to mimic the texture and feel of the wolfs fur. I used charcoal and pastel and tried to softly rub them on rough paper. I then drew an outline of a wolf and used photoshop to change the colour and darkness to make the wolf darker more menacing. 

I made sure I tried a few different backgrounds and textures in the wolf shape to see other alternatives and different sides. 

Here Ive tried to create a number of different marks to try and recreate different fur marks that i could then put over Sultan. I used a brown water colour for his colour, which I think works well as it looks tired and almost muddy which works well. I then changed the vibrance of his fur colour and overlaid the colour.