...but....I don't like watercolors...

I've been sick since last Friday and I think the combination of a hacking cough, stuffy nose, back pain, and meds completely messed with my sleeping hours; so while laying awake at 2 am I got this idea for a post (WARNING: I'm still under the influence of a very strong antibiotic and cough syrup, so you'll have to forgive me if this makes little sense). One of the earliest memories of art I have is of a metal box of watercolor cakes that belonged to one of my brothers, it was about 120 different colors in this huge-or so I thought- box which I desperately wanted to get my hands on...and which my brother guarded with his life. Now, don't think I was going to be careless with his precious watercolor box -he didn't even use them-, it was that ever so present feeling of "You cannot have it because it's mine"...brothers.... I had to wait a while to use them and when I did I felt completely cheated of the whole experience...the pages of my coloring book warped under the water and since I had no one to show me how to use the cakes correctly there was more water than color in them, apart from the obvious color drops I managed to get in all the wrong places. So ended my fantasy of the huge metal box and watercolors. Years passed and I started working in larger formats, after a year and a half of painting with oils I was absolutely certain that this was the medium for me; whenever someone tried to lead me to watercolors I would start claiming all the "evils" of such medium, how difficult it was and how unforgiving of ones mistakes. It turns out I couldn't escape from watercolors forever and they finally caught up with me last year when I changed my art class schedule and I landed with a new teacher who just happened to love watercolors....oh, the difference a good teacher makes. Although we didn't spend much time working with watercolors I completely fell in love with the subtleties they possess and the wonderful effects you can achieve with them. He inspired me to continue experimenting outside of the class and to have to ask myself now who was that person not so long ago that used to say "I don't like watercolors". So have you tried something new recently??
These are all done for 2 different swaps over at iATCs.