Thursday-11:45am

Got the table set up on one end for painting again.

Trying out new brushes on the brown paper towels.

Sample of more experimenting on practice paper from Haiying. :)

Some brushes work better than others for different things, of course. I am enjoying discovering it on my own. :) There are brushes--like the orchid bamboo small--that hold a mind boggling amount of ink! These oriental brushes are so different from the "western" watercolor brushes! I think I am going to like the mountain horse brush for bamboo stalks. There is absolutely no comparison between these brushes and the Giant Panda set I got from Jerry's Artarama. I have to thank the wonderful people in the Chinese Brush Painting Yahoo group for telling me about Oriental Art Supply!! :)

This is just so much fun to play and learn about the brushes and what they can do and how fast they dry out--and which ones work well on bamboo leaves or stems--I haven't even begun to play with making the orchids! And I am still getting used to the actual practice paper--which absorbs water differently than the paper towels. I do think I will be playing and practicing strokes for a long time--and having such fun! I hate it when my timer goes off and I have to quit and wait to come back and play some more.