Why is it always a bear?

I've heard that "Why is it always a bear?" question from Lookers.  Never from Buyers...

Why to chainsaw artist carve bears?  Because bears pay the bills!  Bears account for no less than 50% of sales. The mantra is, "carve a bear, carve what I want, carve a bear, carve something artsy, carve a bear, carve a dragon, carve a bear, etc..."  All those bears will sell before that one dragon!  But everything sells eventually.

Recognizing this, I have focused on improving the look of my bear carvings.  This first photo is of a bear I carved earlier this year.  Not bad and quite sell-able  but left a lot of room for improvement.  The following 2 photos are of the exact same carving after I reworked it using some newly learned techniques.  Not a lot of wood had to be removed to achieve a much more realistic, and eye pleasing, product.


The last photo (below) is of another bear carved with these improvements.  In addition, rather than simply burning to darken the fur, color was added after the burn to enhance the over all look.