And so I have. Instead of continuing to stare at the rough sketch of the polar bear, hoping to get up the courage to start using my watercolors (and new Niji waterbrushes) to finish the painting, I decided to try something else in the interim. And like Vizzini said, I have gone back to the begining and my roots. Sketching.
Usually I do tons and tons of cross-hatch (sometimes too much) but for this I wanted to do something a little more down and dirty with the shading. Something a bit more basic. So, I used my trusty ol' #2 pencil, and you just don't get more basic than that.
I do plan on finishing the polar. . .hopefully even soon.