The author likes to have her middle school students work with pens, patterns and textures. Because she was tired of the usual texture project she had been using, Shirley Laird began looking for a new approach. While searching for an inspiration, she ran across some old calendars that had excellent photos of teddy bears dressed up in different environments. She knew she had hit the jackpot! Teddy bears have great basic shapes and are pretty easy to draw and adapt. This article details a project wherein students work with pens, patterns and textures, and describes how her students learned to make the pen-textured fur of their teddy bear drawings look soft and furry.