Latest:
Started working on a wolf this weekend for fun and some creature modeling practice. Here’s the mostly-there base mesh, before I sculpt it a bit:
Wireframe:
Back view:
Head closeup:
Paw closeup:
Any feedback is welcome!
His face right now seems to resemble a bear more than a wolf (it could be the fact that the slope of the head as well as the muzzle is rather steep and a dog’s head is usually more streamlined.
He also looks saber-toothed as of now as well with the size of those fangs, I also don’t it’s a real good idea to taper all of the geometry into the tail as well when you look at wolf anatomy, but it is a decent start for someone who hasn’t done a lot of organic modeling.
Looking at it more, and from some other people’s comments elsewhere, I’m thinking the bear look is coming from the snout/muzzle. It’s too small. Which makes me a bit suspicious of the perspective from my reference image. I’ll see if I can tweak it a bit. The saber-toothing was actually intentional, but without the fur and textures I have planned, I’m realizing it makes no sense at all. Probably should’ve clarified that.
Thanks for the advice! 
I think you should take a look at your reference images again. Look at the curves created by the back. And the shapes. Shape of forehead. Size of ears. http://www.jon-atkinson.com/Large%20Images%201/Grey%20Wolf%203.jpg
Also depending on what you plan to use the model for it might be easier to model the face in a less neutral position to make sure it will work better with animations down the line.
Did some updates. Retooled the head shape, made the ears a lot bigger (maybe too big?) made the lower jaw thicker, added some proper joints to the front legs, tweaked the shape of toes, adjusted the eye position, changed the back a little bit, and maybe some other things that I forgot. How is it now?
I think the back and feet still needs some work
Great job so far tough:cool:
Updates!
Currently here:
Some fur and shader settings in place (pretty much placeholders, please excuse his terrible test haircut):
Wireframe (with UV seams marked):
UVs themselves:
The empty spot at the top left is bugging me, but I can’t think up a good way to lay things out to cover any more space
And a test pattern:
Shaders and UVs are in place though, so texturing time tomorrow! (hopefully)
Folks at CG talk convinced me to just work on the anatomy some more. Feel like I’m getting somewhere at this now:
How am I doing?
Pretty good. Just keep going.
Did a few more tweaks to the legs (making them longer and pushed them back a bit, was suggested on another forum). And I added the fur:
More tweaks to the head: 
Two more, calling it a night on this one:
For something this simple you might benefit from taking it into Sculptris. Re-topology would be needed though.
Much more tweaking and experimenting later…
I’ve forgotten exactly what ALL the changes that brought me here were, but for those following this little project, the wolf looks like this now:
The biggest thing still eluding me is the fur on the sides of the head. I can’t seem to quite get it to stick out right. It’s WAYY to flat in this version, which is why his head seems to lack part of the “diamond shape” that wolf heads tend to get. Also, the forehead shapes feels to flat, need to experiment some there in the coming few days. I also need to double-check my textures to figure out why his lips look slivery and not black. And there are some weird fur patches on the face, and general lack of coverage on the ears…
I was also planning on having some plants and other environment stuff semi-finished to post tonight, but I got too lost messing with the fur on the wolf. Hopefully those will be around in another update or two.
Ok, an exasperated update:
I. Cannot. Get. His. Expression. Right.
This is what his face looks like in a closeup:
This is my reference (the two images will line up if you want to lay them over each other)
No matter what I do, his expression seems to come out as some form of “derpy”. I’ve spent hours trying to figure out what’s wrong in the face here. I feel I’ve made some progress, but it seems I’m still missing something pretty major. But I can’t figure out what. He never seems to be able to get that sad/stoic “wolfy” expression. I’ve been through dozens of images on Google, multiple guides on drawing wolves, flipped through examples of human faces, and I just cannot figure it out. What I have above is the best I’ve managed to get.
Also. fwiw, here’s another angle which is more like what the final camera angle is going to be.
this is really getting somewhere!
It’s been a few days, and the last pic I posted looks like crap in comparison, so I guess it’s time for another update:
Feeling pretty good about his expression now. It feels “wolf-like” now, or at least a little bit. I still feel like the fur and textures aren’t 100% there. I think the blend between light/dark fur needs to start farther up on the sides, and maybe more salt-and-pepper to the fur color on his back. (the strands shift between several different textures along their length)
I ended up throwing out the sculpt/multires (for the second time…or was it the third?) and spending a good bit of time just working on the basic subdiv mesh. Trying to line things up to reference pics is sadly a lot harder than it sounds. (did you know the wolf in that photo I posted above is not perfectly squared up to the camera? His left side is angled slightly away, making him subtly asymmetrical. Fun times). After awhile I settled on a combination of adjusting transparency on the image plane really fast to watch the apparent “movement” of the model and photo, and marking off some lines with the grease pencil.
I also completely redid his eyes, getting rid of the lazy “textured globes” he had before. I modeled a proper iris+lens, which it turns out is the trick to getting the eye reflections to look right.
Tonight I finally felt good enough with the result to sculpt on some extra details again. Here’s the untextured base mesh, along with the partially finished rig (it’s not skinned on yet)
I also took a bit of time make some plants. Here’s one that’s at least semi-complete (although the leaf textures still need some work, and I need to figure out a way of tapering off sizes of the leaves at the end of the stem). It’s an oregon grape: 
I’m still not 100% sure I’m going to use that, as I’ve been a little back and forth on the final concept for this guy. My original idea was something based on the old norse legend of Fimbulwinter, but I suspect most people would miss that meaning and think immediately of Game of Thrones. While I’m not going to even try to deny getting inspiration from that show, I don’t want to turn this into GoT fanart, so I’m debating skipping the snow entirely and going for a more springtime feel. (that, and CG snow is hard to get right, especially in a photorealistic closeup like this).
(feel free to ignore this brain dump and give feedback on the images)
Progress report: happy wolf is happy:
(note: eyes are slightly narrowed in this pic, which makes them look smaller than they are)
I’m pretty much done making any major changes to the mesh at this point. I spent a good bit of time tweaking it over the weekend, ended up messing up my symmetry with no way out, reverted the mesh to a version from an older file, and realized I liked that one better. I made a few minor tweaks that (and applied all my fur changes, of course), and what resulted is what’s above there. Since it seems that I’ve reached the point where further edits aren’t reliably improving the model, and I’m fairly happy with the current look, I’ve decided to call it good and skin the (now mostly complete) rig onto it.
Which means he can now strike more wolf-like poses. Like howling:
I also taught him to shake:
Technically I can still make minor changes to tweak muscles and the like, as long as they aren’t drastic enough to mess up the rig weights, but I’m not sure I’m going to. I think the textures are what needs most of the remaining work, and maybe some fur changes as well. Since the last update, I significantly changed the clumping and scraggling settings on the fur, which give it the more curly look (“scraggle noise” is much smaller/more high-frequency now).
Also going to be doing a lot more environment work on this now, so hopefully the next update will have him posing in the final scene.
tre’ bien bro. very good. i will say that the elbow is very high up on your rig. k9s tend to have elbows located somewhere between 3-6 inches of a dog this size, yours are closer to 8-10. might just want to fix your rig just a bit is all, but good work over all.
This has come along really well.
Maybe take a look at a dogs feet closely though. They are really just toes not feet.
The reason this may be bumping me because you broke his leg teaching him to shake. His ankle will not bend that way, well not further than your default pose at least. They shake paw from the knee, much further up the leg.
still looking good so far though