My Summer with the wolf

For thousands of years the Wolf has captured the imagination of Humankind. Folklore and legend are replete with stories of these mysterious yet magnificent creatures, often twisting and turning them into physically and impossibly grotesque caricatures of their real appearance. In doing so their characteristics of loyalty, fearlessness and astuteness are maligned, marginalized and distorted.
However, in exaggerating the wolf's behavior, people from across the globe recognized something in the wolf, they are the ultimate biological machine, they are to be feared and respected. The Wolf is perfectly built for taking down large prey and intelligent enough to work as a unit. Each member of the pack has a specific role to play in bringing down a Buffalo or Caribou, that is why they are the blueprint for mans best friend, but man didn't want to stop there, man wanted to harness the power of the wolf and tame it, so what happens when Wolf and domestic Dog are combined?

According to Ceaser Milan, the Dog whisperer, when owning a wolf dog, you have to honor its wolf heritage and not its domestic canine counter part- well I was in for an education.
I got the keys to my first property on the 1st May 2015, after spending a week decorating, I moved in, my second day in the property started out as normal, up at 7.30 AM to get to the tattoo studio I worked at in Sunderland.
The Afternoon became a little more exciting, a close family friend presented me with Kody, a 'dog' to keep me company. He is exactly like Ghost from game of thrones, and his behavior mimics Jon Snow's dire wolf as well.

At the size he is I doubted he was a full pedigree Husky, like he was advertised. After speaking to canine officials and vets it was confirmed he is part Wolf dog.

Kody has became my muse during the summer break as his behavior differs from normal domestic canine, I focused on my favorite medium in doing this, the fine liner and my beloved ink and water colors. Kody Wolf is intent on destroying things, so a normal toy doesn't last him five minutes, a tennis ball survives for a mere 30 seconds. Amusing to watch and challenging to draw, as my pet does not sit still. I cheated with this drawing slightly, I managed to photograph him and I worked from that, though I do have a sketch book full of quick drawings of his mannerisms, studying his build and movement. 

I like the way fine liners work with water colour, even thin lines look bold and stand out on top of water colors and ink, I also like the way the paper crinkles while drying, giving the work some movement and character, like it really is Kody messing up my purple bed sheets.