How to Draw a Wolf

Video Transcript

"Joel Hickerson, grindog.com. Today we're going to learn how to draw a wolf. To start with, turn your sketch pad sideways, because a wolf is more horizontal than vertical. I like to start with an action....a line of action, which I follow to create my wolf. A wolf's head, muzzle, maybe a shape for the ears, where I'm going to place the ears. Come down to the neck, the body, where the paws are going to go. Remember, the dog...a wolf and a dog's hind leg actually bend forward, so make sure you get that part right. Okay? We start it there. Now, I like to start drawing in pencil. And I'll draw a million lines, some of 'em I use and some of 'em I don't. But I don't erase until I'm done, okay, 'cause you may come back and decide you want the line you already started with. And if I draw light enough, it's real easy to come back and erase the lines that I didn't need. All right, I'm done with my construction. I come back with a darker, oh, either pencil or marker, and just take the lines of the construction lines that I want to keep. I'm coming in and...now a wolf is a fluffy animal, so don't scrimp on his fur, give him a lots of fur. Especially the farther north you go, the hairier these guys are. Remember the leg bends forward. All right, give him a foot. And, when you're using marker you can actually correct a lot of the issues you may have run into with your construction lines. All right. And once you have your construction lines in place, you come back with your eraser, and if you've drawn light enough, the construction lines should fall away very easily as you erase them away. And once you've eliminated your construction lines, then you can come back either with your pencil to shadow it, like I'm going to do, or you can come back with a color then, at that point, and fill in the detail work. Now I'm just going to shade him, keep it very simple, whereas you may want to come in and pick colors. Draw an elaborate background, or something that applies to the drawing that you want to do. Remember to just keep the texture of the fur, it is very important in a wolf. And you can give him a little subtle personality, like around the eyes. And that's how you draw a wolf."