For my wolf characters I need to find easier methods for animating them. I have studied their joint movement and looked and different ways to simplify their body shapes. Ive learnt a lot about how they move and have a better idea of how Im going to tackle this in animate.

Top wolf is a made up character using the knowledge from previous studies to see how i could pull it off, I want to go with a slimmer wolf  so i can really show off the muscle structure underneath and avoid the hassle of animating a lot of wavy fur. the other wolf is just a test concept to see how fur does give volume to the animal and to see how much fur actual covers the wolf. 

This is a further exploration of the 2nd wolf and an anatomy study to learn about how certain muscles show through the fur. I had a lot of fun doing this and will keep studying the muscle structure in order to recognize the muscle shapes to push my character design further and to understand the mechanics a wolves movement better.

A front study of the wolves muscle and skeleton structure. this will really help me when im doing harder poses like a front on leap forward. 

The different studies altogether! I am really enjoying studying the wolf and think this is a really great way to learn about this animal in depth and I will be able to use this almost like a model sheet when animating and needing reference for my cartoon wolf.
still need to do the side view of the skeleton just to give me better understanding on the mechanics of the structure movement. This page only took me a few days so i will be pushing onto more of a finalized wolf character design as soon as possible.