Rabbit plays with colors

Teacher Eileen asked the class (really just Nica and I) to do colour swatches for our first assignment. The goal, I think, is to familiarize ourselves with  colors. I'm bad with hues so I have to work doubly hard if I want to learn the art.

Since I just moved apartments, I don't have my furnitures yet. And this bed table became my temporary workstation:

Basically, a watercolorist needs a drawing board (mine's in plastic) where we tape the paper (Arches, 300gsm). I'm OC so I taped all sides in equal measurements. Most just tape the edges to let the paper expand once its wet; so when it dries, it doesn't get wrinkly. I like wrinkled paper so I peppered my sheet with masking tape.

After a few minutes of squeezing, mixing, and making a total mess (hey, am an amateur!), my workstation looks like this:

And my basic colour swatches:

I got pretty much excited I played a little more with the gradient and the wet-on-wet wash. Tried it in all colors and got these basic colour combinations:

I used standard watercolor tubes from Pebeo, cheap mass-produced synthetic brushes (4, 8, 10, 12), which breaks off as I use them. Teacher Eileen said I should just upgrade. So I'm using all my standard tubes and prolly buy artist grade when I need new ones. As for the brushes, I badly deserately want to get sable brushes.

Despite the mess and the frustration (again), I now know what colors make sunsets, oceans, and trees! My favorite: Still the blues. - 5/9/2013