My daughter went to Yellowstone last summer, and was lucky enough to see one of Yellowstone's wolves up close. She was driving down the road near Old Faithful early one morning, and a wolf came trotting down the road right past her car. She was able to snap a quick picture with her phone, and when I saw the picture, I knew it was a special moment that I could commemorate in a painting.
My daughter only had a few seconds to catch this picture and snapped the image above with her iPhone. Although the image quality isn't ideal, it was enough to work with. I changed the composition slightly, removing the tree trunk that's intersecting with the wolf's head in the photo and flipping the image so that the wolf is walking from left to right.
Learn more about the the Yellowstone Wolf Project at the Yellowstone Park Foundation's website.