About a year ago, I did this small study of a bear at the Montana Grizzly Encounter captive bear facility between Bozeman and Livingston, MT. I liked it so much that I cast it and eventually convinced myself that it would be a great piece to enlarge. Here are some pics and notes on the progression from small wax study to a larger-than-lifesize model.

CAST BRONZE STUDY – “His Lordship”

 Planning out the layout and design of the larger bear bust….

With some help from the lessons learned from my great 10th grade trigonometry teacher, I designed out this custom pair of 50″-long measuring calipers to do the enlargement.
Welding up the steel support post for the larger sculpture.Glueing the styrofoam sheets together under a little extra weight and placing the first pieces onto the steel support.

Initial roughing in of the foam and beginning clay application.