Wee Blue Bear

Inspired by a Lisa Congdon's Black Bear painting, I decided to try making a little bear for myself.  This guy is on an 8×10" canvas.  I started by selecting some pages from an old book for the background.  The fish and eagle illustrations seemed to go with the theme.
Once the pages were glued down with gel medium, I sketched out where I wanted the bear to live.
Then I covered the canvas with a thin layer of melted bees wax.  It gives the book pages a bit of a muted quality that I like.  Before painting in the bear with acrylics, I took an exacto knife and scraped off the wax just in the area where I wanted the paint. 
It probably doesn't show up well in the photo, but scrapping the wax off before painting gave the bear a nice texture.  Honestly, it was kind of an unexpected side effect that worked out well….I was just taking off the wax so the paint would better adhere.
Never having painted a bear before, I'm happy with how he came out.  He's got kind of a "painted by a kindergartner" feel that I like.  I would say that's what I was going for as a style, but really it's just the extent of my bear-painting talent!  🙂

~ k