Start with an accurate drawing using the grid method on Daler-Rowney mountboard in sea breeze.

1. Begin with the ears using sepia dark to indicate the shadows with a little black in the darkest area. To begin the fur, flick sanguine dark from the shadows. Add sanguine light to the hairs where they catch the light. Add the highlights with ochre light, and finish with vermilion light.

2. To continue with the head, start with a base of sepia dark, gently rub in and add a little black to deepen the shadows.

3. Again use sanguine dark to show the darker hair, lightening them towards the middle and top with sanguine light. To make the fur look more realistic, gently touch the base of each clump of hairs to fade them into the shadow.

4. Add a little ochre light towards the top of each hair, then dab vermilion and flicks of zinc white to show the hairs caught by the sunlight.

1. Continue working around the head using the same colours, adding more black where the head is more in shadow.

2. Use bister for the fur in the dark shadow above the eye to show the brown against the black.

3. Except for the tuft of fur above the eye, the base colour for the rest of the head is mainly sepia dark. Rub the colour in gently, blend in a little black and add the fur with bister and a little sanguine light to give it colour.

4. The eye is black, a little sepia dark and sanguine dark, with a dot of zinc white for the highlight.

5. The small light line at the base of the eye is a combination of bister and ochre light.

1. Now work from the top of the head down towards the other eye, showing the longer fur at the top and the start of the very dense fur on the head above the eye. Use sepia dark as the base colour again.

2. For a large part of the head a much darker base is required so add black lightly and rub in gently over the sepia dark.

3. Add shadow at the base of the second ear with black and the fur at the top of the head using the same colours as before, flicking the lighter hairs out of the top of the head. Include a little shadow at the base of the fur with sepia dark.

1. For the second ear use solid black shadow for the inside, leaving a clear area around the exterior of the ear. Rub sepia dark over the black but leave the dark centre of the ear black.

2. To complete the ear, add the hairs over the shadow with the point of the sanguine dark pencil. Add sanguine light towards the edges and ochre light and zinc white on the outside edge of the ear.

3. Touch gently the base of the hairs to fade them into the shadow before moving on to the rest of the head and face.

1. As you move on to the head and face it may become obvious that more work is needed to create realistic-looking fur. To begin, increase the depth of the shadow by using umber followed by a little black, both rubbed in gently to give a good solid warm shadow.

2. Then use sanguine dark to show the basic tufts of fur by making the pencil fairly blunt rather than pointed and pushing the hair in the direction you want, forming small rough triangles, with the thick base at the bottom tapering a little towards the top of each clump of hair.

3. Add sharpened sanguine light to each small clump of fur by adding small strokes to the top of each mark and shaping the top of each in the right direction. All that’s required now is to dab the base of each tuft of hair gently to fade the hair into the shadow then add very sharp vermilion light.

Work down the head and face until you reach the second eye using the same method, adjusting the density of the tufts of fur. Don’t rush this stage. Darken the area to the right of the eye to show the fur in the shadowed area of the head a little better.

1. Add the second eye by filling the area completely with black and adding a little Van Dyke brown around the base and the left side to give a little colour. Finish with a sharp stroke of zinc white in the left bottom corner and a strong zinc white highlight in the eye.

2. To create the fur around the eye, flick Van Dyke brown and sanguines dark and light, then dab with a finger where the fur is in shadow.

1. Complete the snout, which is the lightest part of the bear. Use a base of Van Dyke brown with hairs of ochre dark and a little ochre light for the tips. On the snout the fur appears to grow in all directions, but generally the hairs radiate from the slight dark shadow in the middle towards the sides with hair falling away down the sides. Use ochre light and zinc white on the highlight down the left side of the snout.

2. For the nose use a base of black rubbed in carefully, especially where the nose and the snout join. This is not a straight line as the join between the nose and hair is not too defined so a hard black line would not work.

3. The under part of the nose is very definitely in the shade so make this solid black, leading down towards the mouth which is just indicated at this stage with a light covering of black rubbed in to show the shape at the top of the mouth.

At this stage Bob notes that it became obvious that the nose wasn’t right so he went back over the area to make it a little closer to how it should appear.

1. On the area under and down the side of the mask, the individual hairs are far more visible and, again, a very dark base colour of umber and black combined is best to allow the shadow to show under the lighter fur. Use Van Dyke brown for the fur in this area, with sanguine light, ochre dark and a little ochre light over the top to show the individual hairs fairly sharply against the dark. It is important to create the flow of the fur that will add to the shape of the mask.

2. To finish the mask and mouth fill the area above the mouth with Van Dyke brown and dark ochre in preparation for the final hairs, which are a combination of ochre dark and ochre light.

3. After adding all the hairs around the mouth, use a black pencil to make the gap in the mouth a little harder.

4. To finish the head, draw a solid black line above the top of the cub’s head to ensure you can see where the shadow ends and to help give a good clear profile of the head. Then continue with the shadow and fur on the adult bear.

5. Add a little extra black and a loose covering of zinc white to lose the too clearly defined nostrils.

1. The colours and technique for the bear cub’s head is almost the same as for the adult except more ochre dark should be used on the top of its nose to give that lighter colour.

2. The nose is a combination of black used all over with zinc white for the lighter areas.

3. Although the eye has been detailed, this will have to be darkened, as that part of the head is very much in the shadow.

4. Add more adult body fur to emphasise the dark shadow under the little bear’s chin.

5. Add the deep shadow between the eye and the ear and the shape of the ear with black rubbed in gently.

The finished picture

Two Bears, Cretacolor Fine Art pastel pencils on Daler-Rowney mountboard, (37x24cm)

Now follow Bob to draw a white tiger using pastel pencils.

Discover more on pastel painting and drawing with our great guide to pastels.