I found a nice way to teach myself - in this case trying to paint a sunset. I used A5 sheets - wet the back and front with a sponge and then just went for it. I found the ones I liked the best were those that I thought about the least - I just got in the zone and painted. I have my favourite two, what to do think? Let me know your preference, 1 to 6.

With all of them I started with windsor yellow, then added quin gold, then rose madder, then a mix of rose madder and cobalt blue, or some other blues (one called smalt - very lovely colour), then finishing off with a paynes grey. I then added the foreground with whatever was on the palette adding some more paynes grey and gold to thicken it up. What this taught me was not to fiddle, to trust my first strokes and wait, to build up with thicker pigment as the paper dried and then not go back over things. The size A5 helps as any bigger and you are fighting against the time you have to fill the wet sheet, so its less stressy. Wetting the back and not using masking tape keeps the paper flat so you dont have the problem of paint settling in the troughs of a wavy sheet. And its less expensive as not only is the sheet smaller, but I can just buy the pads and not the blocks. You cant use the backs though as that does get a little messy (well you could if you wanted). So for me this works as a way to loosen up and challenge myself. Reflections would be a good next exercise I think. We shall see.