After the basic shape of the bear's head was established I got a bucket of clean water and slopped it onto the sculpture. This would stop my fingers and other tools from sticking to the sculpt. I first smoothed things out then using a piece of an old towel I pressed it gently into the soft sculpting medium. The terry towel makes believable skin texture complete with pores. The folds I had in the material even created wrinkles. This texture was applied to all the areas which wouldn't be covered by hair.
Then I formed small bits of sculpt about twice the size of a finger nail and applied them in random rows, starting at the bottom. After wetting the sculpt I used a small sharpened stick to draw in lines which looked amazingly like fur. I kept it random ... this was a wild bear after all.
Then it was time for his coveralls. I formed the parts, wet them down and pressed in some coarse lawn chair fabric we had bought for this purpose. When the fabric is pulled off the pattern remains. Once stained with the glazes it will look pretty fine!
The final step was to add his eyes and bow tie. It needs to cure overnight before we get busy with the paint...
-dan
