The Bear Hunter

I’ve done a lot of work for Neil Jamieson at Field & Stream over the last year, but it was bugging me that I had not gotten the chance to do something I felt was really great for them. A handful of spots, quarter and half-pagers, but no features or anything that I could really stretch myself on.

So one day out of the blue, I took it upon myself to just ask Neil if I could do something bigger for them, either full page or larger.

He seemed keen to the idea, and a few weeks later, he emailed and let me know that he had something that he thought I would be perfect for.

The story was basically about a man who felt spiritually very close to bears. So close, in fact, that he liked to track and hunt them with a bow and arrow.

For the assignment, I wanted to combine several other ideas I’d been toying with in previous illustrations, such as framing the piece in an organic shape, and working with a lot of highlights.

Also I should mention, I enlisted the help of my friend and fellow illustrator David Hollenbach to pose as the hunter. Thanks Dave!

Fortunately I was also given enough time on this job to experiment a lot and come up with something different and exciting. Most of the time, illustration has such short deadlines that I don’t get a lot of freedom to experiment.

I’m really happy with how this piece came out, I hope I get to do more like it in the future.

Thanks for reading,

Frank