I tried to make a watercolor painting this morning and it was a bust! Part of the issue is that I need to get used to this new #cansonpaper watercolor paper that I picked up. Watercolor paints are the most finicky of all the mediums and react to different conditions. So I went back to basics and made swatches, paying attention to how the paint hits the paper. #sakurakoiwatercolors are at the top and #inktensepencils are on the bottom. Some pigments have become more chalky than expected. That might be a side effect of the wet/dry/repeat process that's happened countless times. Some still look washed out despite my efforts to get a pure hue. Some of the inktense colors aren't dissolving completely. I also watched to see how long it took for the swatches to dry. One problem that I ran into this morning was trying to work too fast and accidently pushing colors into each other. Once I get the rhythm of the paints down I can work really quickly. That's one of the things that I appreciate about watercolor is speed! All materials have limitations. These are issues that I can live with so long as I can plan ahead to work around them. #artprep #artprocess #watercolor #watercolorpencils #swatches #paintswatches (at Sacramento, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBogyRdjD98/?igshid=3cltz3qlsa6b