Thanks Rachel, I completely agree! We'll always see our own work differently to others and the bits we're most critical of in that regard are probably different too! Consistency is the single most important thing 100%. 🫡

Thanks Daniel, I really appreciate that. Glad to hear it was useful!

Thank you, Linda!

Thanks so much, Cathy! I really appreciate that. 🙂

Learning day - love that. I love Daniel Smith paints as well and have a continuously growing stash, but not too crazy. I have to try and stay sensible or I know I'll need a separate room just to store paint! In terms of picking colours, I would say there are 2 aspects to it. The first is just about the mood of the painting and how the new colour will contrast with those on the page. Although I don't have a colour wheel anymore these days, I think that's a helpful way to start thinking about colours that compliment one another if it's something you haven't tried before. For example, deciding in advance to use a split complimentary colour scheme means you could decide on a single colour to use, and the other two will be decided for you. That's probably not a great approach for every painting but it can be a great way to get used to new paints especially. The second aspect is about the particular tube of paint, because the other considerations I have is the density of the pigments and the ease with which the paint granulates and I only get that feel from using the paint repeatedly in different situations. So the initial thought is about how the colours will interact together, and then it's a bit of a gut-call! I wish I could offer a more in-depth answer, maybe one day, but I hope this helps a bit. 😁

Thanks Tara. 🙂 I appreciate it - totally valid to prefer the first one. I agree with you about being our own biggest critic too and I try to keep a relatively sane head with that but it is a challenge! Thank you for your lovely comment.

Haha that's true, and I have no memory of signing it either. I suppose it was autopilot!

I prefer the heaviest hot pressed paper I can get - usually 300lb. Most of what I use is Saunders Waterford but I do like Arches paper a great deal too. I have a separate video about paper specifically if you'd like to know more too. 🙂

Haha I didn't want to sound too harsh on this one as it definitely could have been worse. Thank you. :)

Hey Lani! The watermark should be visible to paint on the top that's right. Most of my paper doesn't have a visible watermark though as I cut it down from larger sheets that only have a mark along one edge. That said, I do sometimes paint on the back of a page and I'm pretty sure that was the case in the second painting here. 🙂

​@TimSchofieldArt Just a question. I am still learning. Is there then a wrong and right side of the watercolour paper? Does it mean that the watermark should always be on the front, not the back?

@@DinahEngelbrecht-kt5hj Hey Dinah! Cotton paper at least will have an 'up' side, which is the side you'll see the watermark on. If you hold it at an angle to the light and look closely, you may also be able to make out the faint imprint of a fine wire mesh on that side too, but it's not as obvious on some types of paper. It's quite easy to spot on Saunders Waterford, more difficult on Arches for example. From my experience at least, there are some differences when painting on the back but they're pretty minor. Pigments sometimes appear to settle into the paper more quickly on the back and can't be lifted for quite as long. They can granulate more as well, which can result in slightly less smooth gradients but not drastically so. I can't see a reason not to use the back of a page if you're practising. As a rule I start new paintings on the top side unless I'm recycling or similar. Unless you can spot a difference between the two sides that you don't like, I wouldn't worry too much about using both / either if you want to. 🙂

​@@TimSchofieldArtThanks so much 😊