Little Bear & Baby Seal 🐻🦭 (Step-by-step guide - Week 25) (Patreon)

Hi everyone!! 🤗

For this week, we will draw a little bear and a baby seal, again, two very different kind animals! As you can see, both are a bit different than the references. I struggled with getting them more similar, but then I thought... this is such a good reminder for everyone that the references are always the source of inspiration and you don't have to make your illustration look exactly alike! ✨

You will find my tips & step by step instructions from sketch to final illustrations below, together with the materials I used!

Tips

Here are some tips I also shared last week in the step-by-step post, I keep them here as a reminder:

Start with a sketch first: Don't skip the sketching stage! A light pencil sketch helps you place the head, body, and features before adding color and details.

Focus on the biggest shapes first: Look at the overall body shape before drawing eyes, wings, feathers, or tiny details.

Cute animals are often round: Softer, rounder shapes can make animals feel more friendly and adorable.

Suggest textures instead of drawing everything: A few pencil strokes and scribbles are enough to create the feeling of feathers.

Practice is more important than perfection: Don't be afraid to make mistakes and experiment! 🥰

Trust the process: When drawing the base layer with brush pens, the drawing can look a bit weird. Even I sometimes doubt if it will be alright in the end. But when I add the pencil layer the whole illustration comes together.

Little Bear

For the sketch of the bear, I used Faber-Castell 283 (Burnt Sienna). When the sketch is finished, I lightly erase the sketch lines with a kneadable eraser.

I used the following Brush pens as a base layer:

Tombow 990 (Light Sand) or Ecoline 374 (Pink Beige)

Tombow 553 (Mist purple)

Try to capture the texture of the fur already a bit with Light Sand. Use Mist Purple only for the eyes and the nose.

For the second layer, I used the following Pencils:

Faber-Castell 157 (Dark Indigo)

Faber-Castell 283 (Burnt Siena)

For the second layer, use Burnt Siena to draw the fur on his body. Trace the outlines with light and dark scribbles. For the nose, eyes, inside of the ears, and mouth, first use Burnt Sienna to create a dark color. Then use Dark Indigo to make them even darker. Add some Dark Indigo to the fur as well to create extra depth.

Baby Seal

For the sketch I used Faber-Castell 140 (Ultramarine) & Faber-Castell 283 (Burnt Siena)

As you can see, I first drew a circle for his head. To make him look cute, draw a bigger head and a smaller body. Draw the rock he is peeking over with Burnt Siena.

I used the following Brush pens as a base layer:

Tombow 553 (Mist purple)

Tombow 020 (Peach)

For the Baby Seal, we will only use Mist Purple for his body & head. We will use Peach for the rocks.

For the second layer, I used the following Pencils:

Faber-Castell 108 (Dark Cadmium Yellow)

Faber-Castell 157 (Dark Indigo)

Faber-Castell 283 (Burnt Siena)

For the second layer we will only use Dark Indigo to draw the Seal: his eyes, nose, mouth, fur, etc. For the rocks, we will use Burnt Siena and Dark cadmium yellow.

I wish you all lots of fun with this week's reference, and don't hesitate to ask me any questions or show your illustrations in the group chat 🤗

Celyn 🌸