Last Chance for the Sloth Bears

7/2/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor pen, Canson XL
140 lb. paper

The sloth bears at Woodland Park Zoo are getting a new home next year, so this is the last week they will be visible to the public until May 2015. I decided to make a quick stop there on this sunny afternoon to get my last look at them for a while.

Mama sloth bear and her two 18-month-old cubs are often elusive critters, napping in their cave, so it’s always a treat to catch a glimpse of them. Last summer when I sketched them, the cubs were still small enough to climb all over mom’s back. But today I could hardly tell them apart from mom – they all looked the same size! Their shaggy yet shiny black fur and fluffy shape are challenging to sketch, but I tried to catch as many poses as I could (as if sloth bears would ever pose for me!).

In the wild, less than 10,000 sloth bears remain. The two cubs are the first to be born at Woodland Park Zoo since 2007. 

7/2/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

7/2/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink