**Colored pencil drawing-Grizzly**

Here is the progression of my grizzly bear drawing. I like working with colored pencils because I can take them anywhere without having to set anything up like an easel, water cup, etc. Drawing is how I relax so I like to do this for a couple of hours before going to bed. But it also keeps me awake because I always want to finish the next part before going to bed. lol. I did get the reference photo from Pixa Bay. That site has tons of wildlife photos for artists to use.

This is the start. I always try to get the background done first since it's really hard to make it look right if you wait until the end.

I always try to keep my backgrounds blurry so the focus stays on the object.It takes many layers of color and blending to get things to smooth out and get rid of the white paper grain.I like the use odorlessmineral spirits to blend the colors.

This is mostly finished now. Now that I see it as a photo, I can see that I still need to touch some spots up and get some more light and dark contrasts in spots. This is by no means professional grade but it's about the journey for me. Each drawing I do , I get a little bit better, figure out a different technique, and learn more about what works and what doesn't. Just like life, if your not growing, you're dieing.