Kinship card...

[Elmst]

Side profiles are difficult to sell, look at Frazetta and Boris for example, they rarely do side profile paintings and when they do it is with purpose, to convey a feeling or mood. Allot of times artist get lazy, it is easier to paint a profile than a 3/4 view. Obviously this is not you but you need to make sure your viewers do not get that impression. You need more emotion in the face and fix the anatomy of both characters. The armor needs to wrap around the body (arms). The wolf needs to have two front legs visible, this will help put the viewer at ease. You might want to remove the back armor from the neck area, you are missing a great opportunity for an interesting shape. Now is the time to get all this straight before you start the rendering, if all this is correct all you need to worry about is color, how fun is that!

A quick paint over to illustrate the ideas.