Bear Prototype done!

I got a commission about two weeks ago for a plushie of the villain DarkPaw from the 80's cartoon Paw Paw Bears. I don't remember this show at all, but the commissioner had plenty of references for the character, so I took the job and started working on a prototype.

I found a bear pattern that was close to the shapes I wanted and started making my pattern based off of it. I stuck closest to the body shape on the original pattern, but everything else was changed. I had to do the head, face, and legs three times and everything else at least twice, which was more than a little frustrating. He has no ears in this, despite being a bear, because the character actually has a big hat that he wears that I still need to make. And yes, there are pins in his foot pads because I got tired of hand-sewing on appliques and just glued those on. The glue isn't dry yet, hence the colorful pins. ;)

Also, that red fur was stuff I just had lying around. It doesn't photograph well. At all. Because it's red. Bright red and obnoxious, and beautiful, but still photographs like crap. I love red but I hate trying to reproduce it.

I fully intend on getting more mileage out of this pattern, too, since I worked so hard on it. Not too shabby for someone who didn't really know what they were doing. I have had some people talking to me about getting other bears done, so this is the pattern I'm going to use for those as well. I think it will adapt well to the other projects if they come to pass.

Oh yeah, and do you see that he's poseable? :) Can sit on his own... I don't think he'll stand on his own but his arms and legs do move. His face and paw pads are appliqued felt that's been hand sewn to attach it to the fur... and he's about 11 inches long, as you can see.

I've really loved working on this project, and can't wait to have the finished (non-prototype) done. He still gets a hat, a staff, and a cape, but at least I should be able to get the base put together very quickly now that this step is done. Home stretch, here I come!

Oh, and here's what Dark Paw looks like. Just in case you don't remember this show either.
I hear tell that there's a few episodes on YouTube- I think I'll have to look them up!