All drawings and illustrations on this page have been inspired by photos from Norbert Rosing in the book The World Of The Polar Bear. See page  Wonderful books for drawing for more details on this book of the month.

How to draw a polar bear seen in profile?

To start, choose a simple movement, which allows you to understand the shape and proportions of the polar bear. The best is to copy an image where the bear appears in profile. Once you’ll be familiar with its shape, you can try to draw it in other poses.

The shapes of bears are simpler and easier to draw than many other animals, in part because of its massive constitution and its abundant fur which make round its contours. These curves explain the effect “teddy bear” that attracts children. The fact that the bear can sit and stand up predisposes humans to identify themselves more easily to this mammal.

I made the drawing below from one of the images of the “book of the month”.

Draw it the easiest way possible

If you want to draw many of them in various poses, I suggest you try to guess where the joints are, while sketching the outline of the skeleton. So it will be easier to articulate and draw it in motion thereafter.

Sketch with joints

Then you can color it with crayons. Usually, the fur of polar bears adults is a little yellowed. In the case of the drawing below, I tried to render the blue reflection of the winter in the far north.

rendered in colored pencils

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Make a sketch, step by step,
of a face of a mother bear and of its cub

	First of all, I draw a slightly curved line on the top of the head, almost flat, of the mama bear.
	Just below, I sketch the big nose of the polar bear.
	The face is in profile, so I see only one eye that I draw at the same height as the top of the snout.
	Then I draw the top of its ear at the same height as the eye. The ears of bears are round and hairy, probably to protect them from cold.
	I start to sketch the neck line.
	Now I draw the tip of its nose which takes a good half of the height of the snout.
	Its mouth, located midway between the nose and lower snout, draws a line slightly downward toward the neck.
	Now it is time to draw the baby bear of the mama bear. I sketch a circle to locate its head, not far from the snout of the mother.
	The face is seen by three quarters, so I see the two eyes, one in the center and one on the edge of the head. The baby bear’s eyes are located much lower than those of its mother. This is true for all babies of all species, including humans.
	The snout is much smaller and shorter than that of adult bears; this is what makes them cute. Imagine if the baby animals had the big noses or the terrible mouths of their parents!
	Now I can draw the tip of his nose and its little mouth lines that fall on both sides.
	Its small round ear confirms that it belongs to the family of bears. Maybe if its ears were long and pointed, its mother would be wondering?
	The bear is well protected and warm under his mother’s thigh. It takes out his paw for playing. It is true that bears have big feet!
	That’s it for this small sketch!

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Create a sketchbook models on polar bears

One of the best ways to learn to draw an animal is to make a sketchbook models.  Take a sketchbook, or several sheets of paper, and draw polar bears in various poses from various angles. Then you could use these drawings and sketches as a model, source of reference or inspiration.

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