Art Attack! #14: We'll Be Bears! ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ

Hey Hive!

We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my paintings and the process behind them. A behind-the-scenes look at my artwork, if you will. This is not to say that I'm very good at art, or that I'm a professional in any way. In fact this is the opposite, and serves as a reminder to how I first started, and lets me track my progress too!

Anyway, in October 2019, I started watching We Bare Bears again because there were new episodes since the last time I binged watched it.

If you're unfamiliar, We Bare Bears is an American animated series created by Daniel Chong for Cartoon Network. The show follows three bear siblings, Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear, and their awkward attempts at integrating with the human world in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The show follows the bears as they attempt to integrate with human society, such as purchasing food, making friends or trying to become famous on the Internet, although these attempts see the bears struggle to do so due them being, well, bears. The episodes are fairly short, and are mostly lighthearted, although there a few that have some deeper meaning behind them.

We Bare Bears is one of my favourite current TV shows. A common theme throughout the show is the bears learning to deal with issues that are very relatable to people; like peer pressure and bullying. I think these are real, pertinent issues that people of all ages can relate to, so it's not "just a kids show".

I initially thought that the creator, Daniel Chong, was a Singaporean, but turns out his parents were Singaporean Chinese, just like me! I guess they migrated to US quite some time ago. And I think the experience of being an Asian American might have inspired a few We Bare Bears episodes, which makes it all the more relatable!

Speaking of relatable, this do be some of you guys, don't even ack:

Sorry for rambling! But anyway, during one of the episodes, I saw a really nice painting up in the Bears' cave! I'm referring to the painting on the left, of the Bears in their iconic Bear Stack:

It's kinda small in the background, but when I noticed it I thought it was really a cute and sweet picture. So just like Stardew Valley's Jade Hills, I decided to recreate it!

Btw sidenote, but I found this picture with the paintings reversed for some reason? It doesn't look right.

Anyway, time to get sketching! I don't know what it is about the Bear shape, but every time I sketched it it looked weird! Sean said it might be because the bottom bear needs to seem bigger even though they're supposed to be the same size.

I drew Pan Pan alright though, but Ice Bear might be a little chonky.

Grizz turned out alright too. I think the chonkiness might be due to ice bear's paw position too, since he's also holding the balloon.

It looks a bit better once I outlined them though, thankfully!

4.1.jpg

Time to get painting!

I made the background simple, just like in the original painting, since I wanted the Bears to be the focus, and the simple background matched the show's style anyway. And I'm not sure what it is about the brown I did for Grizz, but the streaks just wouldn't go away and they were so obvious!

I did try to blend it a little better here.

I probably should've just left it be like that. But I screwed it up.

So I tried to fix it again. And eventually, this was what I ended up with:

Apologies for the reflection on Grizz's outline. But it looks alright irl. And was better after I laminated it, so yay!

I'm actually really happy with how this piece turned out. Yeah, maybe Ice Bear looks a little off, and I probably should've made him shorter and wider, but I think it still looks okay. And now I can hang the same painting in my house too! 😊

Thanks so much for reading!