Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Aw I just want to hug him!

Thanks Michelle.

I will try to stay positive and use the bears people have made on here as inspiration for what I want to achieve with more practise 

Thanks.  I love videogames.

Thank you so much Francesca it was really helpful to see the before and after pictures.  You really can see the difference the shading makes in adding more character to the bear.

I will take your advice of adding a small amount of colour at a time and building it up gradually.

I appreciate the advice.

Infinite hugs

Rin

He is so gorgeous.  I love your bears so much 

Hi everyone,

I looked under shading in the library and couldn't find anything on where to shade them.  I've never shaded before but got loads of great help from everyone on here about what to use and have got some markers.  They are called Tinge and can be bought from The Works in the UK if anyone is interested as they are really good and are 99p each instead of the £5.00 + each of Copic markers.

The problem I'm having is that I'm unsure of what areas to shade on my bear.  I have looked at bears on here for inspiration and they have beautifully shaded paw pads, faces and ears.  I'm just so scared of messing up.  How exactly do you know what areas to shade and what line strokes will look nice?

Aw he's so cute!  I love the picture of him laid down in the hotdog bun on your website.

I absolutely love him!  Everything about him is just so cute especially his expression which is just so friendly and sweet 

Aw he has the most adorable little face that just says 'take me home and hug me' 

Ah I wondered how you'd done the paws 

He is so cute I just want to hug him to bits (which wouldn't be good for him though.)

Thank you for the encouragement everyone.  I guess practice makes perfect 

I really struggle with embroidering the nose most of the time student bearmaker but this guy was one of the successes .  I don't know if it helps but I've found that using wool felt for the footpads is brilliant.  It usually gives an overall neat effect more so than ultradsuede which I found much harder to work with.

It is a nice feeling helping to raise money for charity so I'm going to make them another bear for an event they're having in October.

Infinite hugs

Rin

Your post made me giggle CrawlyCreepies - trying to catch me out by giving his name 

I did actually post his name initially, realised and then edited the post about an hour later  ;).  I can be such a zombie sometimes.

Your advice was really good because I think I do need to use a shorter fur pile for that size bear or make the bear bigger so that you can see the detail.  I'm working on one at the moment that is very similar and the fur is lovely and soft but a lot shorter so that the detail can be seen.  I'll post some pictures when I finish him to get some honest advice.

You made my day in saying that I've definitely improved because I'm so critical of myself that after seeing the gorgeous bears on here it makes me wonder if mine will ever be as good.

He looks real 

Have you sculpted the beak and feet yourself?  They look so realistic.

Absolutely adorable.  I love the eyebrows and blushed cheeks.

Have you drawn the footpads onto the bear?  They're really nicely detailed.

Thank you.  I think following your heart is good advice because I would never want my bear-making to feel like a chore because at the moment it is a fun hobby.

After around four years of bear making this is my most recent bear.  He is 8 inches tall and has a sculpted face (although you can't see because of all the fur :lol:)

I donated him to the RSPCA so that they could raise funds by using him in a 'guess the name of the bear' competition.

After seeing everyones bears on here I have to admit that I'm a little disheartened with my own as many people have only been making them for half the time that I have and are a million times better than I am.

I'm not sure if it was a mistake when I first started but I only made a couple of bears using a pattern and then I started to devise my own because I couldn't wait.  I also cannot seem to choose a preferred style such as traditional or realistic bears and keep dabbling in everything which I suppose makes it harder to perfect a certain type of bear.

If anyone can give me any feedback or advice on the best course of action it would be very much appreciated.

This was one of my favourite bears and was inspired by a video game.  He is wearing fur armour, carries a sword and has his face painted warrior-style.  He was also 2 1/2 inches tall.

This is a bear I made with two contrasting colours, again around three years ago.  He is 2 1/2 inches tall.

This is another bear I made around three years ago.  He is inspired by my love of zombies.

Hi everyone,

Just continuing to post my bears and stuff to get some honest opinions.  This was a bunny that I made about three years ago for a friend and she named her Ilfana.  Ilfana is the name of one of the characters in the Final Fantasy 7 video game.

Thank you Jen 

Thank you for all your help Claire and Michelle.

I did keep going back to the fabric I painted with oil paint and it took 7 days to dry!  I didn't realise it took that long 

Your suggestions are really good Claire thank you.  I tried pastels but rubbed them on the fabric instead of applying with a brush so I know how to do it properly now.  I did find some markers similar to Copic in The Works called Tinge Art Markers.  These are really good.  I could not afford the Copic ones as they seemed to be around £5.00 and over whereas the Tinge ones were 99p each.

Stunning 

Hi everyone,

I practiced shading on a bear head I messed up previously but after three days the oil paint has not dried and still comes away on my finger when I touch it.  It seemed to work really well initially other than the fact that it won't dry.

I'm finding this aspect really hard as I've no idea what to shade with and all my attempts seem to end badly.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I have heard wax crayons as well as human makeup but want to use something that won't rub off as well.

Thanks in advance.

Infinite hugs
Rin

Thank you infinitely