Our model for the Fresno Tuesday night sketching group posed in a cream jacket with a white feather boutonnière. With his bare feet, he looked like a tired out partygoer, and I was eager to convey it all in a painting.

His jacket color reminded me that I had several sheets of paper that had been treated with golden watercolor grounds. Perfect, I thought, for capturing the color of his jacket and boutonnière, and I pulled a sheet out and got to work.

The drawing went well, but when I began to paint, I had trouble. The grounds give a texture to the paper that prevents the paint from mixing down into the surface as it normally does. The thinner paint beaded on the surface and dripped down the page until I took it off the easel and painted with it flat on my desk. In the end, I thought the colors appeared too bright, and I missed the eggshell mat finish of the gouache. I spent part of the following two days making adjustments to the sketch and feel like I learned a bit. I like the final painting, but not enough to use golden grounds again soon.