First Look: The Wolf Who Couldn't Howl (Patreon)

One of my favorite pieces of Socket I ever did was him sitting amidst a couple of gravely wounded wolves. It's been a couple years since I did that piece and with Socket's "birthday" around the corner, I figured it would be a good time to do an updated version and see how far I've come since then.

I'm not really the type to do symbolic pieces but this piece and the original it's based on are rare exceptions. In Socket's lore, he had reputation amidst his coworkers of being aggressive, quick to anger, and a loner. "Well, well, if it isn't the wolf who can't howl!" is an insult that haunts Socket's mind. What his coworkers don't know is his hairpin trigger temper stems from more than a decade's worth of chronic pain issues that plague him, despite his visible wounds being long since healed. The wolves in this piece are literal manifestations of how people see Socket but also how he feels. They are intimidating, untamed, and blind with rage. However, in reality, they are exhausted from their perpetual agony and can no longer bite or bark.

I don't generally talk about my personal journey through the creation of my work, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to do so with this one. I worked very slowly on this piece and made sure to really think about every piece of paint I put down, which is unusual for me with digital mediums. Midway through this piece's creation, I had to take a several days long break from art altogether due to my chronic nerve pain flaring up to the point where my left arm was immobilized (I'm fine now, don't worry!).  When I returned to this piece, I was testing my body to see if I could reasonably start working again.  I felt as though the amount of consideration and care I put into every stroke was tripled because of the pain I was trying to avoid.

As an aside, I don't condone drawing while in pain because the risk of injury is very real but obviously you have to test the waters at some point. I do find it amusing that a piece about my own character's pain and sorrow was how I pushed through my own bout of pain issues. 

Lastly, I was very deliberate with my layer management and made sure to make a new paint layer every time I sat down to work on it so I could make the process gif attached to this post. Every paint frame (frames 4 through 10) was a new evening where I sat down and chipped away at this piece. I think the end result is pretty cool. 

Anyway, let me know if any of that information about my own process or these OC lore tidbits is of interest to yo. I'd be happy to do more in depth write-ups of pieces (when applicable) in the future! 

The high-res and progress .gif are both available for download below!