More Work with Bears

Having returned from my travels to Gaylord, Michigan, where I discovered my struggle to draw bears realistically, I pulled out one of my bear models and decided to practice with it.

This is a polar bear model, I think by Safari.  In these pieces I am working on slick, cartooning paper with a Pentel Pocket Brush pen.

This is a completely different set of tools and effect than working with a fine-nibbed fountain pen on multimedia paper.

The brush is less controllable.  The surface is slippery and absorbs nothing.

The more loose, less tightly controlled drawing experience let me think about bears and their shapes in a new way--a little more generalized.  Looking at the bigger picture, and how the body parts work together.

In this next piece, I decided to try a large pencil sketch (18 x 24) of the animal, just to see what would happen.

Definitely getting more bear-like!