Holly...

Back in the summer, the American magazine Travel Guide ran a competition for it's readers with the first prize being a painting of their favourite bear done by me.  I have finally completed the winner's painting - I'm only so late in doing so because the winner could not decide which bear to choose for her prize, so commissioned me to do a second painting of the other bear!

This is bear 435 Holly, who lives in Katmai National Park, Alaska.  She is quite something, being fairly old for a bear and yet still producing cubs which she raises in a calm, well practised style. She has also won the annual fun Fat Bear contest in the past - as you can see here, she gets large!  This has been painted in watercolour on paper.

Up next, another commission, another bear...
 

Otis Visits Red Square...

 A couple of weeks ago I posted one of my Otis stuffed bears to Russia.  He made it through customs and immigration and this week I received this amazing photo.  Looks like Otis is already having a wonderful time taking in the sights of Moscow - now we know what he gets up to during the hibernation period, haha!

Thank you to Angelika for letting me use her photo and for taking such good care of Otis!

Grazer...

 Another stuffed bear complete - available in my Etsy shop now.

Bears & Blankets...

This week I have made a Holly bear - she sold within 2 minutes of being in my Etsy shop...

...an Otis bear - he's still available, but not sure for how long...

...and completed the lacy crochet blanket that I have been working on over the past few weeks.

 The blanket is also in my Etsy shop.

Currently on the easel is another bear painting, although at the moment it is just the background whcih has taken me a week to finish - tomorrow I start painting the bear, yay!

How It Starts...

This is my current commission - I thought you might be interested to see how a painting like this gets started.  Initially the bear was drawn out carefully in pencil, with a sketchy background as in this case it is mainly leaves, with the water flowing around the rock that the bear is standing on.

Then I begin to paint in the background, carefully around the outline of the bear.  Usually I would use masking fluid to protect the edges of my drawing, but I have run out so on this occasion I have just had to take my time and do it the hard way!  Once the paint around the outline of the bear is dry, I rub out the pencil marks so that when the time comes to paint the bear, I have no dark smudgy lines showing through the paint.  I will do this throughout the painting in order to keep the pencil marks that are visible to a minimum.

The reference photograph I have been given was taken by the lady this is for and is a little bit fuzzy - she told me she was so excited that her hands were shaking!  So as I go, I will try and sharpen it all up a little - I do have quite a few other photos of this particular bear that I can call upon to get details of the face etc. to work from.

This is in watercolour on paper.  I have two more bear paintings to produce between now and Christmas if possible...it's going to take some doing!

Otis...

Just completed this - the bear 480 Otis, painted in watercolour on paper.  This was a private commission.  I have painted Otis many, many times, and thought it might get boring but this one kept my interest the whole way through.  The reference photo just had water around him but I was asked to make it that he was sitting in his 'office' - the area at the back of Brooks Falls where Otis likes to sit quietly and gorge himself on salmon.  I have also painted 'the office' so many times that I don't need a reference photo any more!  Painting all that fur was quite a challenge - so many curls and ruffles!  It took a great deal of concentration not to lose my way with it.

This is part of a double commission, the other being of bear 435 Holly.  Good job I like bears...

Interlude...

I have a ton of work to complete before Christmas (hopefully) but had to take a few days away from it to paint this little chap.  Sometimes it pays to take a step back from the commissioned work to do something for yourself in order to keep your work fresh - I mean, I love Otis the bear, but to paint him three times in a row gets just a little tedious!

So this is a young bear at Katmai who as yet has no number and is currently referred to by the unfortunately nickname of Bucky - long and involved story as to why, which I won't go into here.  A few weeks ago he was lying on a rock just watching the world go by and we got some great close-ups on the live web cams.  I collected a few images as I really wanted to make a painting from them, it was such a sweet moment.  Since then, the urge to get this done has been strong so I went with it and am very pleased with the result.  Watercolour on paper.

He will be in my Etsy shop shortly - and for me, it's back to Otis once again!