Are you ready to put the pen and pencil to paper, and make an easy bear drawing with me?
It is very doable for beginners since we’ll go over every part in the step-by-step tutorial below, complete with pictures. Which doesn’t take away from it also being a fun doodle for more experienced artists to have a go at.
I had a real blast making this cute bear face pop up against a backdrop of rolling pine-forest-covered mountains.
What you’ll need:
- paper, any kind will do.
- a pencil.
- a good eraser. (Perhaps, not the one on the back of a pencil, like the one I’m using in these pictures. This one happened to perform well but in my past experience erasers on the back of pencils are often sub-par and at risk to stain the paper. A typical case of ‘Do as I say but not as I do.’)
- a Sharpie marker.
- a black fine liner. (Sakura Micron pens are awesome.)
In whichever order you prefer, start by drawing the outline of the picture, the bear’s outline, and the bear’s front paws. Use the pencil to make lots of tentative shapes, as seen below.
Unless you nail it with your first go, this is the time to search for what looks ‘right’. Don’t be afraid of these sketch lines. Just try different ones until one of them pops out as the one.
There may come a moment where you just can’t see clearly anymore. Too many tentative lines? That’s what I had on the right side. Sometimes, all you need is a fresh start. and with a pencil, that’s no problem.
Next up: filling the forest with trees. Two of the mountains behind our bear are covered in pines. Or firs. Some sort of coniferous tree. To make it look natural, be sure to start with the trees that are in the front, near the bottom of the picture.
Then, fill up the row behind those, and behind those, and so on. Each next area can be ever so slightly smaller than the trees that are closer by.
Do you know which one of the penciled lines you’ll follow for the shape of the bear? Trace that one with a Sharpie or thicker black marker.
Give bear a face, too. Eyes, nose, and mouth. (If you’re unsure about winging it, there is no shame in trying a few eye and nose placements in pencil first!)
You can leave a little piece of white untouched when coloring in the nose, to portray the reflection of light on bear’s wet snout.
Drawing the outline of our little woodland see-through can be tricky. If the ends don’t meet (in this case, mine came together perfectly – hooray) you’ll have a few options.
- embrace the imperfection and don’t make a big deal of it
- start a new drawing – maybe even do the black outline before everything else
- make the outer border thicker to cover up the glitch
- touch up the messy part later on with Photoshop
Now, draw the front paws. With a fine liner, add the nails on the outside of the ‘window’.
This – below – is what we have so far. It’s starting to look like something, isn’t it? I wasn’t too pleased with the nose and mouth but decided to roll with it for now. In the end, it turned out to be a cute sort of lopsided snout, which gave him a bit of personality.
Time to switch to the black fine liner.
This is what we’ll use to trace the trees. In the same way as when drawing these with a pencil, start with the largest, closest one(s). Then, the ones just behind those, and so on.
That way, you won’t be bothered by random pieces of tree that should logically speaking have been hidden behind the ones nearby.
Still with the fine liner, bear is getting his snout completed. (And again, penciling it first is a great way to proceed.)
The line runs from one corner of his mouth upward, over the nose bridge and back down to connect with the other mouth corner.
Fill in the ears with a thin line too.
Use the precision a fine liner offers to make the transition between the thick lines and the thinner ones at the mouth corners a bit more gradual.
| More Drawing Practice Ideas Right here: Cute Beginner Drawing Ideas For Free Spirits (Or anyone who wishes to unleash their creative side, really!) Also, here: Cute Easy Things To Draw Or here: Rose Drawing How-To (Easy Step-by-Step Tutorial) |
Finish up the bear’s face with a chin line right that follows the shape of the rest of the snout.
I like his style!
Add a few tiny dots where he might have a few whiskers, or just freckles.
Last, but not least, the two mountains that aren’t covered in pine trees are given some texture with little dots. As tempting as it is to rush these dots, going fast can easily lead to the dots becoming stripes. So slow and steady it is… kind of like an excercise in Zen.
We’re almost done. Time to put the cap back on and grab an eraser, to get rid of all those pencil-sketch marks.
Hello, handsome! Isn’t he cute?
I hope following along these steps was relatively easy to do. Let me know if there are parts that could have been explained better. (And don’t forget to add our bear drawing to one of your Pinterest boards!)
Not quite done drawing? Check out this short tutorial How To Doodle A Cute Striped Cat (Step-By-Step), Cute Doodles To Draw: Ideas, Inspiration & Tutorials, or take to the world of plants and Doodle Flowers.
Easy Bear Drawing: Pin It For Later
