Li'l Bear or Where's Momma?

Some may think I gave this piece a rather heavy treatment. He could hardly remain floating in the sea of bits. The darker framing gives balance  to this scene. The cub weighs the branch down with his well-fed bulk.

Placing leaves into the framing draws the eye further into the picture.

This was a very simple applique, one piece, with minimal thread work. The snippets lent such a busy feeling to the background the cub needed to be calm. Had I done it as paper piecing, as the original, I think it would have been less soothing.

I could not stop thinking Koala while I worked on this guy. In fact my husband made the same comment. We've seen so many pictures of them lounging in trees, I wonder if the original paper piecing came from a Koala scene? Change him to Grey, make his ears bigger. Awwwww!