i am trying to enter the wireframe mode to reference the background picture and i cant seem to see through the mesh. Not sure if it is just too dense (which, it does look a bit more dense than your sample) or something else, but is there something i am doing wrong?
No it doesn't sound like you're doing something wrong. Since sculpting requires dense meshes, the wireframe is usually too dense to see through in wireframe view.
There's a trick I like to use in this situation where switching layers can serve the same purpose. Check out this lesson, specifically starting around 3:48, where I demo the technique.