Konrad Bengal Tiger Pen

This is another pen I received for Christmas in yesterday's mail.  This one I knew would be quite a challenge to capture the colors and the patterns in the body.  I used one sketchbook (Daler Rowney) for trial and error and then the Strathmore Visual Watercolor Journal for the final.

I found using the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils to be my best bet.  Especially with the black swirls.  I first worked dry using the brighter yellow and then Cad Orange and taking a damp brush over the colors to gently blend.  I went back over again dry with Cad Orange and Cad Orange Dark building up the darker tones in areas and again blended with damp brush.

Next I worked the black swirls blending some of the lines with a just damp brush and leaving others dry.

Again I added more yellow and orange going over some areas of the black to help make them look like they were within the body gently blending with an almost dry brush (all water squeezed out of it).  For my darkest orange, I tipped my brush with the pencil color and worked that in between the swirls.

Next to final touch was gently going over the edges of the pen parts blending some of the black near the edges into the orange.  I used a "tickling" approach with brush to paper so not to blend too much.

Once I knew it was completely dry, I went over a few black line in the swirl pattern with my Lamy Safari EF nib pen with Lexington Grey ink.  

This was really relaxing and fun to do.  I actually surprised myself achieving the results that I did.

Trial and Error..........

Final Illustration............

Photo including the actual pen for comparison...........Depending upon how the light hits the pen, it might look more yellow or it might look darker orange.  I love the pearlescent (is that even a word???) look of these acrylic pens.