Fur In The Paint

I hesitated to post this today, but I have nothing else to show, soooo . . .

I hesitate because I am unsure whether I will continue to work on him. Tomorrow, I may feel that my time is better spent trying to create 2 or 3 small pieces in the time I have left. By that I mean, (yes, I know I keep saying it) but I am really busy with the gallery, plus in 2 weeks my artfair season kicks in to full swing. Also, I am going to be starting a new project soon, that I will tell you all about in a few weeks. (hopefully) We need to hammer out some details and possibly get some lawyers involved. But suffice it to say, that it involves art, horses and doing some good for those in need.

About the Bear
I am struggling finding the colors that I want to portray him in. I’ve been adding some heliotrope type of violet which I rarely use. Still not quite nailing it. I had Pondered doing him in water color pencils. I could get the colors I want but don’t really feel like I have the time to complete a watercolor pencil piece. So I will move ahead with the oil pastels and see what happens.

Crash and Burn
I have to say that it is slightly disconcerting to blog about this painting since I have so many issues with it. Normally, I figure “Oh just go ahead, whats the worst that could happen? I fail and start something else.” I am not used to failing in public view though. Maybe Mike or my art group are told about it and shown the evidence, but other than that it is a pretty private moment. But now that I am putting it out into the universe, for all the world to watch me possibly fail. We’ll as I said it is a bit disconcerting.

I’ve got a couple of good excuses as to why I haven’t been posting new artwork. Honest First of all, I finished up my article for the next issue of Apples N’ Oats magazine, a week early! That’s two times in a row. WhooHoo! Also been doing loads of bookwork, like preparing my sales tax figures. Not really a whoohoo, but nice to get it done. And then of course, tis the season for the gallery to get busy. So now that I feel perfectly righteous in my slacking off with the art thing, I thought I would go ahead and show you some of what I have been doing art-wise.

I am putting aside my draft horse by the trailer and moving on. He is almost done and I am sure I will finish him up some time this week. I am hankering for a change. So on this past Sunday, I got three different non-horse critters drawn out. The one that is calling to me the most is this, an Alaskan Brown Bear. I was actually looking for a small bear image to put onto handmade paper, but when I ran across this photo I had an Aha! moment.

So I decided to go large-ish. And of course to add to the challenge, I not only used a reference photo with water, but also decided to move his legs around. This is a zoo bear and it is overweight. Or I may have taken this photo in the fall when it was gaining for hibernation. But it is still more pudge than I want. I am not sure that my painting will reflect any particular season, so best shed a few pounds. I imagine it would be hard to keep a captive bear at its ideal weight. I mean it’s not like zoo bears are running after elk or anything.

I don’t think I am completely satisfied with this pose. I most likely will extend the foremost, hind leg back farther. This will help give him more movement and not make such a straight line along the edge of my painting. Also I may raise a front paw as well, leaving it slightly held in the air. Not sure, but I don’t like the square, boxy shape that I have right now.