Back from Dominican Republic.. fumbled the ball with watercolor pencils but was partially saved by an old Pelican watercolor set!

We were quite impressed by the Dominican Republic. The island offers great Latino style hospitality and packs the greatest number of coconut palm trees per square foot in the Caribbeans. The Las Terrenas area in the Samana peninsula deploys more than 20 km of wide open natural beaches protected by a barrier reef and mangrove in certain areas.

For sketching purposes, I wanted to use a new watercolor pencil set for the first time but realized it's a skill set in itself! Fortunately, I had an old Pelican watercolor set dating back 40 years and a block of Arches paper.

After a 4-5 year hiatus from watercolors... I'm a bit rusty!

I haven't used Arches paper for a while in my travels... but realized how much I miss it. Looks like this could be the beginning of a comeback to watercolors after an apprenticeship with Chinese black ink painting.