Struggling with this fella, as the fur is a problem ,as there's so much of it.Will probably try stains, washes etc,etc, to get more life into it.
Brian

Beating yourself up a bit here Brian. The washes will deal with it, darken all over in the recesses and definitely darken the muzzle a bit.

I'll do that.It would have been nice if he had a pouch or a hunting horn to break up the fur on his body.

Almost there Brian, what we see so far is excellent, you know what your doing so a little bit of fine tuning and this will another cracker.
TERRY

Great

I really like it so far.

Marc

Fantastic Brian!

Cheers,
Ken

Bumping into enough bears, grizzly and black over the years, and my wife a wildlife photographer..I’d try some warmer yellow tones on the snout, some variation in darks for the main fur: blue or green..to give a black bear..or for the griz look go reddish...then change up the fur on his shoulders to grey as say a wolf skin? Black bears tend to have more uniformity in colour look..whereas griz tend to look more streaky if that makes any sense ..griz paws are very clearly more nasty looking than black..blacks also coming in reddish cinnamon ..and griz have amhump to of shoulders that’s usually distinctive. Could always go for most elusive griz..spirit bear ..in whiteish warm grey...anyway, other than a few highlight, need not highlight each bit of fur..

It’s darn cool piece you have there..framing of the face works well..don’t lose sleep over the fur..I like what you have going..

A,very special sow my wife photographed over some years, locally known as Apple..their eyes are expressive

Looking ok to me mate, but would definitely go for a darker fur with blue tones nearer the bottom of the bust.

Cheers Davie

Face looks excellent Brian, your usual great work...….but as you said.....it's a clear case of no accoutrements to break up all that fur. A little more research and visualization by the sculptor was needed here.

Wayne

I'm going to be playing about with different tones as it's still a very much WIP.

Think about the dark bit over middle of Bear head..

Looks great so far Brian, like you said, just a few tones to bring it all together and give it that finishing touch.

Only one reference pic does not make for a great sculpt...………….

I think I'm going to answer my own post......I think sometimes sculptors rely too much on pictures rather then their own imagination. This is a perfect example where I suppose there was a commission to do a mountain man and a picture was sent as an idea. But was there no thought other then the picture as far as how the painter is going to paint this piece and how it's going to potentially look like in the end. Yes, I know time is money, but does that eliminate the creative or thinking process. Stiff as a board....frozen in ice...………………..Sorry for the rant.

Still very much a work in progress.Have already made some changes,but still got some way to go.