Edit: took a better photo in day light.
Oil on canvas, 94x60cm. Started in mid September during an oil painting course, the subject was "figure (either one self or someone else) in a landscape". I wanted to portray some confrontation of sorts to give it a bit drama, so the bear was added as it felt interesting.
Here is the preliminary sketch for composition and gesture design. Found a reference for the bear and took some photos of myself for the figure. I wanted to leave the nature of the confrontation within mystery, so the figure does not seem scared, as most would be when seeing a bear, only slightly surprised. Admittedly a bit illogical, but at least the teacher thought it was better to leave space for interpretations. There is not a deeper message in this, I thought about some symbolic meaning but it just did not feel genuine. Some class mates thought this was a commentary on the relationship between nature and men, or the recent bear incidents reported in newspapers - totally not intended but I'm okay with that.
There was no charcoal sketch, just underpainting and the figures were rendered with layer painting technigue. Originally this was meant to be rather photorealistic but the rough, sketchy dry brushing style seemed fit this subject better.
