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Description
Here it is! A small tutorial and Progress GIF! I didn't take a screen shot of the base colors because I didn't plan on doing this, so ignore that

I don't usually do lineless painted styles. I kind of made my own way to do it, and this is no way the right or wrong way to do this. My best advice is to look at a couple tutorials and then experiment on your own. Practice doesn't make perfect, but it makes progress!

Step One: Sketch
The initial idea for the drawing this is where you find out the anatomy and how you want everything to turn out. Usually I draw the background out as well as the character, because it's just as important. The background adds to the perspective you are aiming for, and it's easier for later on if your background is planned out. It can always change and doesn't have to be extremely detailed. Like with this background, it was originally going to have a forest and a river, and I drew those out to be scribbles. Later I decided to have it just be a snowy tundra like landscape, and didn't add the trees and river.
Another thing I'd like to note about this sketch is the lines I drew withing the character. They kind of look like fur don't they? That's cause it is fur! I decided since I wanted this to be realistic to sketch out the direction and length of the fur. Trust me, it helped.

Step Two: Base Colors.
I didn't have a screen shot for this, nor can I go back and get what it looked like because all the fur was draw of one layer. Basically for the next step, I went a layer beneath the sketch layer (and turned down the opacity of the sketch layer). Using a dark color (It was a dark blue grey) I colored the "silhouette" of the wolf. From there, I started to draw the fur, mostly the simple colors and where they would be. I followed the sketch guidelines for that.
As for the background, I did that on a separate layer, and started with the sky colors. Darker blues to the top and lighter blues near the mountains, and blurred them. On the same layer, I added the grays of the mountains and a lighter gray for the snow parts.
I didn't do the mouth, nose, or eyes in this step.

Step Three: Details
For the most part, the fur was done. It took maybe an hour of playing around with colors and individually making every piece of fur. This is why I sketched the fur originally. It helped so much when it came to making the details, I knew exactly where I was going and what I was doing. And a tip for the fur that I did, I used the brush tool on SAI, but changed the density and size to fit the section I was working on. This allowed colors to mix and overlap one another to give it a fur feel.
Once that was done, on a separate layer, I painted the nose and mouth. Basically, I followed the sketch lines with this. The nose was a lot of playing around with blacks and dark grays. With the mouth, I used the brush at a low density to make it darker where the mouth was going to be. Wolves mouths are usually dark around the outsides. After that I used the brush at almost 100 percent density to define the lines and draw the dots where the whiskers come out of
The eyes were done on several different layers. I used the same kind of realistic style that I used in this old tutorial. I need to remake it, because I've improved and learned new things since then, but a lot of the ideas where the same for these eyes.
I also blended and played with the background.

Step Four: Begin Shading
I drew the moon first, the light source for this picture. This why I made the background at the same time as I made the wolf. I realized that a picture works better if you get the background done or close to done BEFORE you shade the character. It gives you colors to go off of, and makes the finished piece flow better.
Then I began to shade, on different layers above the wolf. If you have SAI, I suggest using the clipping tool. It comes in handy and is more efficient compared to using the wand tool to keep in the lines. Every layer that is turned on with this will stay inside your first drawing.

Step Four: Detail Shading and Background.
The stars came from a copy and paste of mine that I reuse ALL TIME (You guys now know my secret). But this tutorial helps to make awesome stars like that!
I also almost finished the shading, and got way more detailed in it. Here's a few hints for shading in SAI:
- Try using the multiple layer setting instead of the shading. It comes out less saturated and generally looks better with the colors of the character.
- FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD, avoid shading with black. Your drawing will have WAYY more life if you shade with different colors. And by different colors I mean ones that go with the background and the lighting you're working with. With this I used a lot of blues to shade with since it's night and the blues of the sky reflect off the fur.
- Uses more than one layer, each one with different colors, layer opacities, settings. Play around with it! That's what I do every time (another secret released whoops)

Step Five: Textures and finishing background
The Galaxy brush I keep using? Yeah, I used that on the background and a little bit on the wolf to give it more detail. On the background I used two layers, one on multiply and another on luminosity, and I just painted in the stops that looked like they needed something else to them.
After that, I turned off all the wolf layers, and saved the background as a png. Then I opened it in Photoscape (a free program that can add effects to your drawings I totally recommend it). In there, I edited the colors of the background as well as blurred several places. After editing, I saved it and pasted it back in SAI above the old background layers.

Step Six: Finishing effects.
I turned off the background layers including the new one, and turned back all the wolf layers. I finished the rest of the shading and saved it as a png and did the same thing as I did with the background, I opened the wolf separately in Photoscape and edited the colors. Unlike the background though, I didn't do any blurring but added a film effect instead (I already forgot which whoops). When I got it to where I like it, I save it and pasted it back in the SAI file over the wolf. Now the effects can sometimes be too much, so I turned the layers opacity down till it looked good with the background.
I added a few things after that, like more sparkles in the eye and light swirls in the background. Save and Done!

I really hoped this helped! :'D

Time Taken: Around 4 hours
Programs: Paint Tool SAI (Not free but cheap) and Photoscape (totally free)
*note, I did use a drawing tablet. This will be harder to do with a mouse.
Reference: weknowyourdreams.com/images/wo…
*another note, I usually don't use references, but with realistic things, it's best to actually see the anatomy.

Have a Great Day/Night

Description
Here it is! A small tutorial and Progress GIF! I didn't take a screen shot of the base colors because I didn't plan on doing this, so ignore that

I don't usually do lineless painted styles. I kind of made my own way to do it, and this is no way the right or wrong way to do this. My best advice is to look at a couple tutorials and then experiment on your own. Practice doesn't make perfect, but it makes progress!

Step One: Sketch
The initial idea for the drawing this is where you find out the anatomy and how you want everything to turn out. Usually I draw the background out as well as the character, because it's just as important. The background adds to the perspective you are aiming for, and it's easier for later on if your background is planned out. It can always change and doesn't have to be extremely detailed. Like with this background, it was originally going to have a forest and a river, and I drew those out to be scribbles. Later I decided to have it just be a snowy tundra like landscape, and didn't add the trees and river.
Another thing I'd like to note about this sketch is the lines I drew withing the character. They kind of look like fur don't they? That's cause it is fur! I decided since I wanted this to be realistic to sketch out the direction and length of the fur. Trust me, it helped.

Step Two: Base Colors.
I didn't have a screen shot for this, nor can I go back and get what it looked like because all the fur was draw of one layer. Basically for the next step, I went a layer beneath the sketch layer (and turned down the opacity of the sketch layer). Using a dark color (It was a dark blue grey) I colored the "silhouette" of the wolf. From there, I started to draw the fur, mostly the simple colors and where they would be. I followed the sketch guidelines for that.
As for the background, I did that on a separate layer, and started with the sky colors. Darker blues to the top and lighter blues near the mountains, and blurred them. On the same layer, I added the grays of the mountains and a lighter gray for the snow parts.
I didn't do the mouth, nose, or eyes in this step.

Step Three: Details
For the most part, the fur was done. It took maybe an hour of playing around with colors and individually making every piece of fur. This is why I sketched the fur originally. It helped so much when it came to making the details, I knew exactly where I was going and what I was doing. And a tip for the fur that I did, I used the brush tool on SAI, but changed the density and size to fit the section I was working on. This allowed colors to mix and overlap one another to give it a fur feel.
Once that was done, on a separate layer, I painted the nose and mouth. Basically, I followed the sketch lines with this. The nose was a lot of playing around with blacks and dark grays. With the mouth, I used the brush at a low density to make it darker where the mouth was going to be. Wolves mouths are usually dark around the outsides. After that I used the brush at almost 100 percent density to define the lines and draw the dots where the whiskers come out of
The eyes were done on several different layers. I used the same kind of realistic style that I used in this old tutorial. I need to remake it, because I've improved and learned new things since then, but a lot of the ideas where the same for these eyes.
I also blended and played with the background.

Step Four: Begin Shading
I drew the moon first, the light source for this picture. This why I made the background at the same time as I made the wolf. I realized that a picture works better if you get the background done or close to done BEFORE you shade the character. It gives you colors to go off of, and makes the finished piece flow better.
Then I began to shade, on different layers above the wolf. If you have SAI, I suggest using the clipping tool. It comes in handy and is more efficient compared to using the wand tool to keep in the lines. Every layer that is turned on with this will stay inside your first drawing.

Step Four: Detail Shading and Background.
The stars came from a copy and paste of mine that I reuse ALL TIME (You guys now know my secret). But this tutorial helps to make awesome stars like that!
I also almost finished the shading, and got way more detailed in it. Here's a few hints for shading in SAI:
- Try using the multiple layer setting instead of the shading. It comes out less saturated and generally looks better with the colors of the character.
- FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD, avoid shading with black. Your drawing will have WAYY more life if you shade with different colors. And by different colors I mean ones that go with the background and the lighting you're working with. With this I used a lot of blues to shade with since it's night and the blues of the sky reflect off the fur.
- Uses more than one layer, each one with different colors, layer opacities, settings. Play around with it! That's what I do every time (another secret released whoops)

Step Five: Textures and finishing background
The Galaxy brush I keep using? Yeah, I used that on the background and a little bit on the wolf to give it more detail. On the background I used two layers, one on multiply and another on luminosity, and I just painted in the stops that looked like they needed something else to them.
After that, I turned off all the wolf layers, and saved the background as a png. Then I opened it in Photoscape (a free program that can add effects to your drawings I totally recommend it). In there, I edited the colors of the background as well as blurred several places. After editing, I saved it and pasted it back in SAI above the old background layers.

Step Six: Finishing effects.
I turned off the background layers including the new one, and turned back all the wolf layers. I finished the rest of the shading and saved it as a png and did the same thing as I did with the background, I opened the wolf separately in Photoscape and edited the colors. Unlike the background though, I didn't do any blurring but added a film effect instead (I already forgot which whoops). When I got it to where I like it, I save it and pasted it back in the SAI file over the wolf. Now the effects can sometimes be too much, so I turned the layers opacity down till it looked good with the background.
I added a few things after that, like more sparkles in the eye and light swirls in the background. Save and Done!

I really hoped this helped! :'D

Time Taken: Around 4 hours
Programs: Paint Tool SAI (Not free but cheap) and Photoscape (totally free)
*note, I did use a drawing tablet. This will be harder to do with a mouse.
Reference: weknowyourdreams.com/images/wo…
*another note, I usually don't use references, but with realistic things, it's best to actually see the anatomy.

Have a Great Day/Night