Akela

The Drawing Process

It felt awkward at first, gripping the knurled metal ferules of my Staedtler clutch pencils. They have a front-heavy design and feel very substantial in your hand. The paper was new to me as well, at least for graphite drawings. Stonehenge Aqua hot pressed is a dense, bright white paper similar to my old standby Fabriano Artistico. I chose Stonehenge because you can still buy it, unlike the old version of Fabriano, and I have really come to enjoy it for watercolor.

After a few hours, it all felt very familiar: the scrap of drawing paper Blu-Tacked over the top of my drawing to protect it from the oils in my drawing hand, my clutch pencils in my left hand, and a warm kneaded eraser stuck onto my drawing board. The meditative quality of drawing replenishes me; I have missed it. I feel like 2020 has been a bit of a rebirth and it’s good to be back.

It took about four days to complete the drawing. I then enter the slowest phase where I squint and rub my graying chin and try to determine if anything else needs changing. Artists have a hard time knowing when to quit, but it takes time to truly see the drawing for what it is. Staring at a drawing for too long can leave you desensitized to the details. You need some time away to see it with fresh eyes.

After letting the drawing sit for a couple of days, I decided it needed some softening in the shadows. I used some graphite powder and a filbert brush to gently blend the details back into the shadows in her neck. This was followed by some serious cleanup work with a kneaded eraser. Finally, I applied three coats of workable fixative and it was time to call it finished.

I removed the drawing from my drawing board and scanned it into my computer and created the master file from the 6 different scans of the various parts of the original artwork. I am thankful I still remember most of Photoshop and appreciate the developments made in Stacks and Automatic Scripts in the newest version of the program!

The Subject

I took the reference photograph of this beautiful wolf back in 2013 at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center (GWDC) in West Yellowstone, Montana. We had it a habit of visiting twice a year when we lived in Missoula, Montana. We were there on a beautiful May afternoon and I was shooting from inside the enclosed viewing area through one of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

This wolf was named Akela. She and her brother Kootenai were relocated to the GWDC in the Spring of 2007 from another facility in Montana. They were only 6 weeks old upon arrival. I really enjoyed seeing her on our visits and we would often try to arrange our visits for the times they were out in the enclosure. She had a penetrating gaze that I really felt spoke to the wildness of these beautiful animals.

I was sad to learn that Akela passed away in the Fall of 2020 from pancreatic cancer. Her brother is going to be 14 years old this year, which I thought was amazing for a wolf, although I learned that they have similar life expectancies to dogs when raised in captivity.

So, as with so many other stories in 2020, this one has a somewhat sad ending, but I believe that by continuing our education of young people about the critical roles that wolves play in the wild, we can hope for a brighter future for the wild animals living in the 22 million square acres of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Thank you for the inspiration, Akela!