I'm going back to an old method for watercolor. I also decided to do this on some 'lesser quality watercolor paper' (i.e. "not Arches") and was a bit taken aback to find that I was able to use this paper (Windsor and Newton Watercolor Paper) better than the Arches cold-press I usually use. While the Arches is great for holding onto vibrant color, that's also a bit of a drawback - it holds onto pigment and doesn't let go. Ever. I find I work best if I'm lifting up pigment, and it's near impossible to do that with Arches.
More spirit falcons! Yay!
I also got a temporary replacement monitor. It's a 19 inch CRT, but the colors are spot-on. I spent about 3 days off and on adjusting the brightness, contrast, and gamma until it was just right. One of the drawbacks of using a monitor that's dying to the point where you can't adjust it anymore is you get used to poor brightness and inaccurate color. I knew something was off, but I didn't realize how 'monitor blind' I had been until I got this new one! Once I'm able to save up enough, I plan on buying a good LCD monitor. While this CRT is good and accurate, it's a huge electricity hog and the natural refresh flicker (60 Hz) is just noticeable enough to annoy me. Still, it's better than what I had before!
