How to draw a bear clip art

In this lesson, I will show you how to create an adorable bear clip art that everyone will fall in love with! This cute cartoon character is not such a challenging illustration to create since the posture is pretty standard and most body parts are simplified and easy to sketch using a basic shape.

Ready to learn how to draw this cute bear? Great! However, before proceeding with the lesson itself, let's take a moment to learn a little bit more about this incredible creature!

Ears are small and made from tiny circles.
The top of the head is filled with hair.
Eyes are round and pupils are made using small dots.
more hair can be found on the back of the character.
The tail is short, thick and made from a triangle.
Legs and feet a large and filled with simple shadows.
Claws are represented by sharp (and small) triangles.
Don't forget to draw a large curved line on top of the back leg.
The nose is small and created from an oval shape.
The jaw is larger on both sides of the head.

Excellent! Now we have everything we need to start this drawing lesson on the right foot. Ready? Let's draw!!!! :)

Step 1 - Building a template using basic shapes

Like most characters we are drawing here, it's a good idea to start working on your bear clip art using simple shapes to draw accurate proportions. The head and jaw are made from rectangles and the ears are illustrated with two small circular shapes.

The body is drawn using a very large circle and the tail is made from a pointed and sharp triangle. All four legs are made from thick rectangles and the top part of the back leg is represented by another large circle.

step 2 - It's now time to draw this cute animal!

Using mostly long curved lines, you can now draw this cartoon bear as shown in the illustration below. Make sure the bottom part of the head is round and don't forget to leave some space on top of the head and on the back of the animal to draw some hair (something we will do in the next step).

Now that we are done drawing the animal, you can erase all orange shapes sketched earlier.

step 3 - adding more details

Inside the head, draw two small circles and two dots to create the eyes and the pupils. The nose is made from a wide oval shape. Small patches are sketched inside the ears and hair is drawn on top of the head and the body of the bear clip art. Finally, draw long claws using triangles on the bottom of the legs to complete this step.

step 4 - Time for some colors!

For this lesson, let's create a beautiful brown animal. The whole body, the head, the legs and the tail are all filled with the same color. Patches found inside the ears are brighter while the eyes and the claws are white. The pupils, the nose and the leg located behind this adorable predator are all filled with a dark brown color.

step 5 - Color gradient to create a more complex image

Using the gradient fill tool from your application, you can now add a darker brown color inside the animal to create more depth and volume. The darker part of the gradient fill can be placed on the bottom of the animal. You can also use this technique inside the ears and on the nose to complete this interesting step.

step 6 - more shadows to create more depth

It's now time to draw additional shapes inside the bear clip art to create subtle shadows. You can see these new additions below (with a temporary blue outline). Of course, these shapes are currently too saturated. We need to use transparency if we want to end up with subtle and relevant shapes.

step 7 - highlights to create even more volume

Using the same technique, it's now time to create highlights to give even more volume to this cute illustration. Once again, we need to apply lots of transparency to make sure the effect is plausible and realistic. These new shapes are barely visible, but without them the character wouldn't be as interesting to look at.

step 8 - a beautiful bear clip art done in just 7 steps!

Once all effects are applied correctly, you should end up with a beautiful cartoon bear filled with life. See how shadows are adding more depth to the character (especially near the bottom of the image) and how these very subtle highlights are adding what it takes to make this character stand out from the crowd?

Have fun drawing more adorable cartoon bears!

These are all steps required to create a beautiful bear like the one found on this page. Getting all proportions right is probably the biggest challenge for a beginner. Adding beautiful shadows and highlights is also tough if you are not familiar with this technique, but having an accurate cartoon bear to work with certainly helps.

Don't hesitate to draw more bears like this one to improve your drawing abilities quickly and effectively. You can also try more characters from the same series here. Have fun drawing and don't forget to practice as often as possible. It's the best tip I can give you to get better at drawing! :)

Go back to How to Draw Vector Illustrations of Animals
Go back from How to Draw a Bear Clip Art to home page