Coloring a bear tutorial

A friend asked how I color bears and other critters with fur. I tried to explain it but figured it would be easier to just do a tutorial.I by no means think I'm an expert. As a matter of fact, I think I did horrible with this but I tried. LOL!

I was asked recently how I color my bears and such animals with fur. Here's two ways I do it.

Danni's ways to color a bear using just prismacolor pencils

Stamp your image

I can't stand for things to just be hanging in the air so I always put some ground beneath them. Using the side of your pencil, shade some ground using warm grey 30%.

I like my images to have a shadow effect around them. I used a circular motion and went around the entire bear using warm grey 10%.

(side note, if you are using multiple grey's in an image, it is usually best to stick to one group. Example--all warm greys or all cool greys)

Next I colored the pads of his paws and his nose area with light peach.

I did the spots on his paws with peach.

Next I colored the outline of him with sienna brown. I also added blush pink to his ears. For this I used small circles and also light brush strokes following the outline.

(side note: with colored pencils you can get many effects just from how much pressure you use. Experiment and find out what works for you)

I then fill him in using small circle motions. Sometimes I go over an area twice to make it a tad darker and to even it out a bit.

For the last step I colored his bow with scarlett lake.

Danni's way to color a bear using prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits (OMS)

Stamp your image.

Again, I can't stand him just hanging out in air so I shaded under him with the side of my pencil in warm grey 30%

I then blended it with OMS. I took my stump and went in straight strokes horizontally to keep the same effect for the ground.

For the shadow effect, I went around the whole bear image with warm grey 10%. I guess I do sort of make a circular motion when doing this.

I then blended it with OMS. I use a circular motion when using the stump on it as well.

I then colored his pads on his paws with light peach.

And added peach to the little dots.

I then outline him in sienna brown.

I then add blush pink to his ears and light peach to his nose.

I then use the OMS to blend. I use circular motions and I try to pull the color from the outside towards the middle.

Since he still wasn't filled in very much, I went back and added a few more strokes of sienna brown to him.

And then I blend him again. I do this process over and over until I get the shade I want. I noticed I didn't really do that hot of a job on the blending of this either as I went out of the lines in a few places. Once your card is made though, those imperfections won't show as bad.

Same process again.

And finally where I was happy with it. (minus all the out of the line places, normally I'm better than that)

Then I colored his bow with scarlett lake red.

The two side by side. It's a personal preference as to which way you like. I can see uses for each of them.