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Spectacled Bear

Spectacled Bear line art illustration (click image to enlarge)

Spectacled Bear full color illustration (click image to enlarge)

Artist's notes:

The Spectacled or Andean Bear was completed on 11.27.09. I'm still learning how to render fur, and black fur is all the more difficult. This drawing is based on a photo by Valerie Abbott - although the photo is actually of the 'famous' Andean Bear Bandit, who lives at Smithsonian's National Zoological Park in Washington DC. Bandit's coloring is much different then the typical Spectacled Bear (see photos of Bandit here.) That made the illustration that much more difficult, but for the most part I think it turned out well.

Information about the Spectacled Bear:

The Spectacled or Andean Bear is a relatively small bear - 220-340 pounds for the males and 140-180 pounds for the females - native to Central and northern and western parts of South America. They are the only bear native to South America but the continents largest carnivores. They are the closest living relative to the extinct Short-Faced Bear. Spectacled Bears eat more vegetables and only a small amount of their diet consists of meat. The fur patterns of these bears are as individual as a human's fingerprints.