I Finished the Painting of the Bear Sculpture!

I finished my bear sculpture last Friday!!!  That was a lot of work!!  And, now I'm trying to kick a head cold.  (ugh!)  Anyway, I think I'll have more time to get on Steemit and post a little more regularly again.  And, I'm planning to start up the "Daily Art Quotes" again soon - Yay!!

 

Here are some progress photos of painting the bear:

I painted the bear by layering many thin washes of color.  Some people refer to this as "glazing."  I added pearlescent/iridescent paint over the top (2 different golds, pearlescent white, 2 different pearlescent pinks, pearlescent blue & pearlescent green)

At first I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to do the nails/claws.  I had found some photos of polar bear cub claws which were more pink - almost the same coloring of cat claws - with the pink skin showing through.  I later decided it was better to just make them dark.

I chose to use aqua, blue & purple in the bear's fur.  I did this in an attempt to force people to think "arctic", "iceberg", "polar" - since he is a polar bear.  I also felt that these aqua & blue colors would look great in contrast to the oranges in the pumpkins.  Blue & orange ARE complimentary colors, after all.  Many people found this color choice to be a bit odd - for several weeks - until I finally added the pearlescent white over the top of it again - which calmed it down again.  Also - making the overalls a darker blue helped with the contrast.  I think the final look of the fur - with the blues under there and in the recesses of the fur really works now.  But, it took a while for other people to see what I was doing and accept it.

The seed packets in his back pocket were created as replicas of seed packets that had been made and given out in past years.  I slightly enlarged the seed packet image, and did a graphite transfer.  I then inked-in the lettering with a fine Sharpie marker, and then painted over the top if that.  I had to re- ink some of the lettering again - so that it was nice and dark.

I don't like to use the color black in any of my paintings, so I did the same thing with this bear.  All the "darks" are a combination of dark blue & purple.

I was in the newspaper this last Sunday - in an ad for an upcoming Open House at the Raptor Creek Farm.  The Raptor Creek Farm is a farm that grows food for the Josephine County Food Bank.  Anyone can go volunteer to work in the gardens there.  I am planning to go volunteer there this summer.  This ties in with the bear because this particular bear was created in honor of the food bank and the Raptor Creek Farm.

There are 4 other new bear cub sculptures for this summer.  I will wait to post photos of the other ones until after they have been unveiled to the public over Memorial Day Weekend - during the "Boatnik" Parade.  

Have an Artful Day!

Here are my past posts about the progress of this bear sculpture:

• My First Friday Art Walk Exhibit with Bear Sculpture
• Short Update on Bear Sculpture
• Bear Sculpture Detail Progress
• Sketch Progression
• Progress on Sculpture
• Update on Bear Sculpture
• Of Bear Sculptures & Beets