Step by step Grizzly bear illustration

 Another natural history course come and gone, another final project done, a handful of short stubby pencils laying forlorn on the windowsill. This time around I abandoned my usual pursuit of perfection and decided to set myself a series of challenges, allowing time and energy to grapple with 'problems' rather just turn out beautiful plates. With this in mind I chose a grizzly bear who, while beautiful and wild, is shaped more or less like a blubbery, fur covered blob. One of the goals of natural history illustration is to indicate the underlying muscle and bone structure of the subjects. My buffalo allowed me to really show specific sculpted muscle groups and so I challenged myself further this time around by choosing an animal where those same muscle groups were thickly swathed in long shaggy fur. Contours, tonal rendering, and the direction and thickness of the fur where all taken into account in the rendering of the final surface. In addition to these considerations I decided to choose the most difficult pose possible from the reference photos available. It was a close call between this final choice and a photo of a bear sitting beside a rock. In the end I decided that the rock obscured too much of the body. So walking towards me it was. 

 Once I had studied my bear, including muscles, skeleton, claws, and skull shape I started my sketch for the final piece. Below I have posted a series of progess pictures in order. 

  
   The picture above was the image I submitted for the course. There was still a bit of work to do on it so I spent another day after that detailing the areas of deeper shadow and defining some of the fur clumps.

This was the real end result above.

   It may not be perfect but I am happy with the result. I learned a lot! I can hardly wait to tackle more 'furry' beasts.

   What do you think? Have you drawn an animal with a lot of fur? Did you find it challenging? Or are you an art lover. Do you like pictures of animals and if so which ones? Let me know in the comments.



If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy:

- Grahite Only- Buffalo step by step
- How to create a field sketchbook
- Natural history sketchbook tour


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