This Is Your Home

I don't often write critiques, just because I like to do my best and I often don't have time to do my best. You've done a great job shading here; you took the time to layer it, not just use one color for light, one color for shadows. Your coloring choice in the eyes is unique: I don't think I've ever seen someone color the whites of a wolf's eyes green before. I will say that it isn't realistic, (which of course you already know!) and it looks out-of-place on naturally colored animals. These days, when everyone is giving their canines wings, or bright orange fur, of purple eyes, I'm finding that my eye, at least, is caught better by characters that look refreshingly realistic in color and shape.

The wolves' body poses are excellent; they look natural and correct. The expressions on their faces are easy to recognize and you can really get the peaceful, loving, motherly feeling that this piece is meant to communicate from them at a glance, but they are a bit simple and commonplace. I would suggest that next time you push your boundaries a bit more and try for more complicated expressions on your characters' faces. Still, this puts the point of the scene across perfectly, so maybe that advice isn't necessary! Even though Niru's body is well-done with the right proportions, I can't say the same about Anana's. Most of the time I've found that drawing something small is easier than drawing a larger version, and I haven't quite figured out why...maybe because when you draw something tiny, even when your canvas (page, ect.) is large, you can see all of the body at once and have a better idea of how it looks as a WHOLE, whereas drawing a large character one piece at a time can make it much harder to connect the body parts in a way that looks perfect.

Of course it's all basically right: I can tell with one look that she's laying in the grass with him between her front legs, looking down at his face affectionately with the sun on her back. All of that is easy to absorb from the thumbnail, so, like I said, it gets the point you were going for across. You just missed the mark when it comes to her proportions. Her snout looks a touch too long, her forehead too high, jutting out a bit too far. Niru's face doesn't have these problems (though I notice his forehead is a little high, too) and if I had to guess, I'd say that maybe you're more comfortable, or better, at drawing a canine face at that angle than you are drawing one's profile from the side? That just comes with practice: I certainly don't have the technique down Patagonia yet! My advice would be to look at a real wolf's face and measure the distance between body parts by...well, other body parts. This is difficult to explain without showing you visually, but measure how many noses long the snout is, or how many heads tall the character is. I shied away from referencing pictures of real wolves and dogs for my art for ages and am only just now using them because it just seemed too hard and daunting to try to draw the real thing. But it really does help in leaps and bounds! It doesn't have to be perfect; baby steps.

While your shading is more complex and more impressive to me than my own shading, I'd suggest you use that same amount of time and effort on details like fur on the inner ears of your wolves, nails on the toes, and more fur detail on the body. Niru's facial shading and details are better than Anana's, and like I said before, maybe that's just because you have more practice with that shape. Practice makes perfect, of course!Even try more detail with the colors of Anana's coat, if you're going to stick with keeping her tri-colored. Try different ear positions: pricked, sideways, pinned, ect. instead of the same slanted position (although in this case, Anana's slanted ears look great with her motherly expression.)

And finally, the background! I'm absolutely horrific with backgrounds, so I'm very impressed with yours. The sunlight is exactly the right color and angle, and it really adds to the peaceful, serene feel of the scene. The grass and tree outlines are great, even though I'm guessing you used a digital tool for them instead of sketching them yourself (which is okay, and looks good for the point you're trying to get across, but isn't as impactful as the sight of original grass and trees, all unique from your imagination.)

To sum up this lengthy, rambling critique that I hope you can somehow get something useful from, this is a piece that communicates the scene well, but could be even better with a little more time and work.