Today I "finished" my sample for the 20/20 show at the 20th Street Gallery. It was an adventure in mixed media, some of which I am comfortable and familiar with (colored pencil), some of which I should be comfortable with considering the amount of money I've spent on learning (watercolor) and some of which are pretty new (ink pen).
I was reminded of a lesson which I should have learned long ago - which is to test first. After laboriously applying lots of ink, I decided I needed a wash of watercolor. As I washed with Burnt Umber I watched the area turn red!!!!! Turns out that the dark brown ink pen had water soluble ink which revealed a high red content. Yikes! I tried to scrub it out with water, brush, and paper towel, but was in danger of destroying the paper. So I just went over it with ink pen. Turned out to be OK because that area needed to be darker anyway, But it was a major mistake - hopefully one that will not be repeated.
In the end, I'm about 90% happy with the result. I'll put it aside for a while, then re-evaluate a few days for the due date.