A carrot and a question.

I'm back on weightwatchers again, having put on a bit of weight over the past year. Eventually I would love to be able to go running again. Even if I was never able to do another marathon (I ran the Edinburgh marathon in May 2007 and loved it even though I got horribly injured) it would be nice just to run five miles maybe three or four times a week. But since I really just can't run at the moment, and even walking more than a couple of miles can be painful due to my stupid arthritic ankle, I am going to have to eat a lot more of these and a lot less cake.

:(

Here's a question for the watercolour experts. I am currently using Winsor & Newton Cotman paints. The plan is to replace them with artist quality paints very soon. But in the meantime I'm noticing a few things that mildly annoy me, and one of them is this:


See how in the palette the colours have separated? I had a mix of cadmium yellow pale, cadmium red and ultramarine, it was a slightly purplish grey, but you can see where I've left it alone for a minute and it's separated back out into its three components. Is this a common characteristic of watercolours? Or is it just because student quality paint contains more filler and less pigment? It bugs me a bit having to constantly keep swirling the brush around in washes to keep them mixed! If anyone can shed any light on this I would be very happy to hear your comments.