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A little tiger study for a larger tiger cub painting.   

The talented photographer, Gillian Lang, of the reference photo I used for this painting told me the following interesting backstory on these two fuzzy tigers.  
“The amazing story behind this photo is that Zoya the baby Amur tiger was rejected by her Mom and through collaboration between zoos she was fostered by Lola  who is a Sumatran tiger who had given birth to 3 boys the day after Zoya was born. This was the first time a cross subspecies fostering was tried and it was a success.  Zoya is now 3 years old and lives at Roosevelt Park Zoo in North Dakota.  (Lola's Mom was Suriya who moved to Phoenix Zoo after OKC Zoo)“
Another example of the hard work in wildlife conservation happening behind the scenes through the AZA(Association of Zoos & Aquariums)

Recently I have been painting lions, tigers and now BEARS, OH MY!  The fur on this full figure bear was a fun challenge.  I thought I was in the home stretch with the water. Ummm, not so much.  I ended up getting lost in the splashing water and reflections.  After working on the water, I decided the background needed to be reworked.  After pushing back the background, I needed to rework the edges of the fur on the bear.  I saw and mentally worked on this painting all day and in my dreams! 
This was a bear with many titles.  He was a BEAR of a challenge!  My daughter suggested the title that fit my thoughts perfectly.  That is how he ended up with the title,
Don’t Call Me Honey ©JoyEful Party Animals® !