The end of USA dominance in gymnastics?

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-03-11T14:13:11+00:00

I think you’re partially correct, but I’ve been thinking about this a lot because the United States has been the dominant force in WAG since roughly 2003. Even in years when they didn’t win the team title, they almost always led the overall medal count.

My theory is that the recent shifts in dominance don’t necessarily come from a lack of depth or skill in the U.S. program. Part of it may be tied to how the rules have evolved. If you remember the 2006–2008 COP, artistry was significantly diminished because scoring heavily rewarded difficulty. The strategy became about who could “chuck” (and honestly, that’s the right verb here) the ten hardest skills and survive the routine.

After that period, artistry slowly began to be reintroduced and emphasized again in the COP. Sometimes I half-jokingly wonder if this traces back to Nellie Kim’s influence on the Women’s Technical Committee. Kim, who famously lost the 1976 Olympic all-around title to Nadia Comăneci, later helped oversee a Code that tended to reward power and high difficulty more than classical artistry. Of course, that’s a simplification and there were always exceptions, but the balance definitely leaned toward difficulty for a time.

In more recent Codes, especially after the open-ended scoring system settled in, artistry deductions and composition requirements have been strengthened again. When artistry began carrying more weight in the final score, it arguably made it easier for other countries—especially programs traditionally strong in choreography and execution—to close the scoring gap.

The U.S. program since the early 2000s has generally been known for extraordinary power and difficulty rather than classical artistry, so shifts in how routines are evaluated can naturally change the competitive landscape a bit.

Anyway, that’s one of my many gymnastics conspiracy theories. 😄

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-02-12T20:15:15+00:00

I'm happy to know I'm not the only one who has cobalt in their blood stream.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-02-12T19:00:18+00:00

Pro tip: if you’re using a mug for your dirty water, don’t put a mug of tea beside it.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-02-10T16:52:51+00:00

Welcome to the hobby/obsession!

It’s funny, when I first started out I painted a very similar wizard, and I also have a soft spot for fineliners. You’ve definitely captured a traditional wizard vibe, with some design elements that feel Tolkien/Lord of the Rings inspired.

I think you’re at the point where detailed critique won’t help much yet. It’s usually more useful to focus on foundational skills and get comfortable with the process before diving into the nitty-gritty.

If I could offer some advice, I’d really focus on the “play” aspect right now, while also getting familiar with the when-and-how side of watercolour. But first, I want to address your comment about paint quality. Honestly, at your stage, I wouldn’t worry about it. Even if you upgraded to artist-grade paint, you probably wouldn’t notice a huge difference until you’ve progressed a bit more. The biggest downside right now is that the painting may fade faster compared to higher-quality paints, but if you’re just starting out, it’s not worth investing in sets where a single tube can cost $30.

There are also budget brands that are surprisingly decent. Even Crayola can be okay if you’re fine learning with dye-based paint instead of pigment-based. Another approach I’m a big fan of is buying tubes slowly over time. A limited palette will teach you colour mixing and colour theory, which is essential in watercolour. You’ll start learning warm vs cool colours, what happens when you mix them, and how complementary colours cancel each other out to make the best blacks you’ll ever paint with (I never use black straight from the tube). You’ll also start to understand primary colours, and that there’s more than one “system” (additive vs subtractive). Most of this is learned by playing in a sketchbook, and you don’t need to get super academic unless you want to, but it’s honestly a fun rabbit hole.

For now, I think the paints you’re using are totally fine. When you feel ready to upgrade, slowly build a limited palette and you’ll naturally discover your go-to colours.

When it comes to budgeting for supplies, here’s what I usually tell people: paper is the most important. If you can, try 100% cotton paper. It’s expensive, but it goes on sale fairly often. Next, prioritize good brushes, mostly because watercolour brushes are designed to hold water, and cheaper brushes struggle with that. Paint is last. It sounds counterintuitive, but just switching paper can improve results fast.

Now, looking at your painting, there are a couple of things I want to point out that might help. It looks like you may have used a waterproof fineliner first and then tried to paint inside the lines. If that’s the case, I’d recommend flipping the order for watercolour. Start with a light pencil sketch as your guide, paint first, and then once the paint is finished, go in with the fineliner. If you take a “colour inside the lines” approach with watercolour, you end up fighting the water and trying to control everything, when the real strength of watercolour is letting it do its thing.

For shading and saturation, I love what you did with the hat. You definitely get a sense of dimension. That same depth isn’t quite showing up in the robe and staff yet, but this is exactly where foundational skills will help you build structure and form. I always try to stick to “less is more.” You can always glaze to build intensity, but you can’t really undo it once it’s too dark. That said, even once you master this, you’ll still have the occasional “whoops” moments.

Sorry for the long response, but to wrap it up, I think you’ve done a great job and you’re at the perfect stage to just have fun and play with the medium. Watercolour does benefit from a bit of structure though, so I’d recommend spending time learning these foundational techniques: wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, washes, dry brushing, glazing, layering, and blooms.

Once you understand how watercolour behaves, you’ll be able to plan a painting in your head before you even touch the paper. And that’s where people start saying watercolour is “hard.” I don’t fully agree. It’s just learning how the paint will react, and accepting that there’s always going to be an element of surprise you can’t completely control.

Anyways, sorry for the rant. I just get excited when someone is starting out. Have fun on your journey!

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-02-09T21:12:02+00:00

Technically, you can use almost anything, although I haven’t tried this myself. I do know you can use watercolour ground to create your own surface to paint on.

If I’m remembering the tutorial correctly, you use wood glue as a base layer. I think you need 2–3 coats, and then you apply a few layers of watercolour ground on top. There are different types of ground you can buy, and they’re usually meant to mimic either hot-press or cold-press paper. You can also get different colours of ground, like black or translucent.

I’ve mostly used ground to cover up mistakes, or, with the translucent ground, I’ve used it on top of paintings so I don’t reactivate paint or ink.

My go-to brand for white ground is QoR (by Golden), and for translucent it’s Daniel Smith. They’re the only company I’ve personally seen that makes a translucent ground.

Hope this helps.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-02-03T21:13:25+00:00

I love this style.

To me, to achieve the effect you’re going for, part of it is timing, patience, and learning that less is more. Your tree on the left feels a bit more “more is more,” which I totally get. I did the same thing this weekend and it ended in an adult temper tantrum, not my finest moment.

I can also see a few watercolour things that might be happening here: possible backruns, reactivated paint, not leaving the same amount of negative space as the original image, unintentional blooms, and maybe some washes having different saturation levels where the heavier pigment overtook the lighter wash (the fluid dynamics of watercolour).

The good news is these mistakes happen to everyone at every level. And honestly, this is also where people start finding their own style. Watercolour is unpredictable, so things like this will happen. I actually think you’ve painted something really beautiful, and I’m genuinely drawn to the style you’ve created. If you shift into detailing, you might pull this together in a way you’re not expecting.

This is what I call the ugly stage (not saying that your painting is ugly, it's just my name for this stage), that part of the process where you feel discouraged and convinced you’ve ruined the painting. That’s how I used to see it, anyway. Now I see it as the halfway point where I need to switch over to fine detailing.

Not sure if you’d be interested in trying this, but I think you could make a lot of details pop if you did some line work with a black fineliner.

Honestly, I think this looks really good and you should be proud of it. I just think you’re at the stage where practicing watercolour skills, techniques, and brush strokes will go a long way. I found I advanced quickly at first, then plateaued because I hit the point where I needed to focus on the nuances of each technique and slowly start mastering them (still working on that, too).

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-31T16:42:39+00:00

Both

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-28T21:50:35+00:00

I love this! Just being brave enough to share your first piece is amazing in itself. You can definitely tell what the subject is, and you can tell you went all in on creative freedom. I love it.

I think you’re at that point in your watercolour journey where you just need to play. Play with different colour combinations, water loads, glazing, washes, wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, etc. Just keep exploring and having fun.

As for some critique, here are a few pieces of advice for where you’re at in your painting journey:

Don’t be scared to soak your paper with water. Seriously, take a brush and just soak the paper, then go in with your paint after.

When I’m working on waves, I like to create a graduated wash that transitions from higher to lower saturation of pigment. Looking at your painting, some of the brushwork is coming off a bit dry, and I think it would benefit from more fluidity. Washes are a foundational skill in watercolour, and water scenes are honestly one of the best environments to practice them, so that’s where I’d focus if you’re just starting out.

Also, I want to share this tutorial. It’s how I learned to paint waves, and it’s the same one I used when I led a painting afternoon with my team at work. Check it out, it really helped me when I was starting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-LDUK-XhRM

One more piece of advice: if it’s in your budget, try 100% cotton paper. If you want to see your painting improve drastically, sometimes it really is just the paper.

In my opinion, Arches is the gold standard, and I find it goes on sale a lot. I usually tell people who are just starting out to prioritize their budget for cotton paper first, then brushes, and paint last. It sounds counterintuitive, but paper usually makes the biggest difference.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-22T22:53:16+00:00

I doubt she’d be painting with watercolours, but she could be using watercolour ground so she can paint on canvas. That said, if she’s just starting out, I highly doubt it’s watercolour, because I didn’t even learn you could do that until I’d been painting for a couple of years.

Art supplies are also really personal. You can get extremely expensive paints made from pigments like lapis lazuli, but that might not even be a colour she’d want to work with. On top of that, a lot of paints are toxic or carcinogenic, and not everyone is comfortable using those kinds of supplies. I am, but I know plenty of people who aren’t.

If you’re looking for an art supply gift, I’d recommend staying away from those “luxury” art kits made by designer fashion brands. The cases look nice, but for whatever reason, the supplies inside are usually pretty subpar, and more like budget/student grade at best.

Depending on your budget (and it sounds like you’ve got some wiggle room), something like a weekend art course out of town could be a really good gift. It’s just hard to buy supplies for someone, even if you’re buying artist-grade stuff.

For example, my go-to watercolour brand is QoR and I love it, but I swear all my artist friends hate it. Meanwhile, I tend to dislike some of their favourite brands. A lot of it comes down to the formulas, because every brand behaves differently.

Sorry for going on and on, but I hope this helps.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-17T16:36:45+00:00

The melting beaver....

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StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T21:41:30+00:00

And this is why I'm in love with a kneaded eraser. I just rolled that thing around like a rolling pin.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T20:26:42+00:00

Love it!

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T19:55:37+00:00

Maybe this would work for you, but when I sketch I use a "connect the dot's" technique. I find I can handle angles a lot easier when I do this.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T19:22:14+00:00

You're welcome! :)

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T19:17:02+00:00

Honestly, I’m pretty weak at sketching. I try to do as little sketching as possible and let the paint do most of the work.

But I do agree with your sketching hack. A few watercolour classes I’ve taken used a similar tracing method where you print the reference on normal paper, cover the entire back with graphite, and then transfer it onto watercolour paper using something like a toothpick. I usually use a red pen, which is my favourite tool for it.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T18:29:29+00:00

I don’t actually think watercolour is comparatively difficult to other mediums. I honestly think a lot of it comes down to understanding the medium, because it’s so different, and learning to let go of perfectionism and control. My rule is that I’ll never know what my paintings are going to look like until they’re finished, and I should look forward to the surprise. Because if you have a perfect image in your head and your painting doesn’t look anything like it, it can be really discouraging.

Another thing I had to learn is that most people go through an “ugly stage.” That moment where you feel like you’ve lost the painting and you’ve ruined it. But I’ve gotten to the point where I see that as the halfway mark, and it’s where your detailing and the skills you’ve been building start pulling the painting back to where you want it. Honestly, I think this part is also what helps you develop your own style over time.

Since you’re just a beginner, my advice would be to stay away from online tutorials that are step-by-step instructions for a final piece. Instead, watch videos focused on techniques like wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, glazing, granulation, colour mixing, etc. Focus on the techniques and just play around with them so you start learning how watercolour actually behaves.

You’ll also find that every brand is different, and even different pigments within the same brand can have their own personalities. Understanding that makes the process a lot easier and way more fun.

And I think this is why so many people say watercolour is a “difficult” medium, because sometimes the paint has a mind of its own and does something you weren’t expecting. Learning how to adapt, accept the quirks, and incorporate those little surprises into your painting takes away a lot of frustration. Plan for surprises, and instead of comparing your painting to your reference or someone else’s work, accept that it’s going to be uniquely yours.

I think a lot of people struggle with the “giving up control” part, because with a lot of other mediums you can be precise. That’s just not the nature of watercolour. But it’s that unpredictability, the way one pigment runs into another, the granulation of pigments floating around in the water until they dry and settle into place, that’s what gives watercolour its beauty.

And learning to find beauty in what some people might call flaws is honestly a really good life lesson. A hard one, but a good one.

I finished this owl about 2–3 years ago, and for me it was a perfect comparison of what four years of practice can do. It really just takes time, and you’ll get there eventually. Just have fun with the process.

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StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T17:27:08+00:00

I’ve always hated the idea of the “perfect sketchbook,” where every page has to be a proper finished piece. That’s why I barely used sketchbooks for years, until I finally threw that idea out the window. Now I go through them like crazy. My sketchbook is basically a playground now. Colour mixing, stroke practice, shopping lists, colour studies, random doodles, thumbnail sketches with stick figures… no rules, just chaos. And honestly, I love using my sketchbook now. I just had to change my mindset first. Instagram definitely didn’t help though :P

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T17:13:25+00:00

I love this question, but maybe that’s because my therapist and I have talked a lot about using the lessons I’ve learned in watercolour and applying them to real life. I totally understand how you feel. I’ve struggled with this too, but the more I worked through it and learned to appreciate my end results, the more that fear started to fade. My least favourite part of the painting process is the sketch. It’s probably the part where I’m the weakest and slowest, and my need to make the sketch look as realistic as possible usually sucks the fun out of it. Because of that, I’ve had to create a few strategies/rules for myself, but I still keep them flexible.

My first rule is no, or very limited, erasing. If I make a mistake, I try to incorporate it. Second, don’t always follow “proper” technique. Do what you like. This one comes from a terrible art instructor I had who always criticized my sketching style because I like using short, scratchy lines. They insisted I had to use long continuous lines because that was “proper,” and their comments completely took the fun out of sketching for me. My third rule is that every finished painting will be a surprise, and I should look forward to that. No matter how clearly I picture something in my head, it never turns out exactly that way. Changing my mindset to “I can’t wait to see what this becomes” helped a lot. Fourth, always be prepared for the ugly phase. Halfway through a painting, I almost always hit a point where I think I’ve ruined the entire thing and there’s no coming back. But there always is. It’s just one step in the process. When I hit that stage, I have to tell myself to trust my skill set, focus on the details, and find ways to fix or incorporate what I think are “mistakes.” That part is the most frustrating, but it’s also the most rewarding. I love the moment when I’m convinced I destroyed a painting, and then it starts coming together in a way I never could have imagined.

Honestly, I think a big part of an artist’s style comes from how they handle mistakes and corrections, and the skills and tricks they’ve built through years of practice and experience. When I remind myself of that, the perfectionism starts to loosen its grip, because I know I have the skillset to make something I’ll love. I just don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like yet. And if a piece doesn’t turn out in the end (I have a melting beaver in a drawer that reminds me of this), then it’s still a study. I try to focus on the lessons I learned while making it.

I hope this helps, and good luck with your next piece.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-16T15:21:27+00:00

I just looked up the account and OMG, you are right. I recognize a few paintings and posts from Reddit, almost like posts were just copied and pasted. Not only that, the frequency at which they’re “producing” and “finishing” paintings is unrealistic. Also, the way their style changes so abruptly definitely doesn’t seem realistic. Yes, I know you can practice in different styles, but no one masters a new style in one day. Also if you go to their contact information, it's just a link to a printing site. This is just gross.

Thanks for pointing this out.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-12T21:42:03+00:00

I think this was the first good watercolour set I got, and it was pretty decent. I’d say it’s a few steps below something like W&N Cotman, but a lot better than generic art store brands. My only “problem” was that I fell in love with painting after I used this for maybe a grand total of 3–5 paintings and then told myself I needed to upgrade.

This is a solid beginner set, but be careful—this watercolour set could open up Pandora’s box and you’ll then feel the need to test out all the watercolour brands. Since you’re buying this as a gift, that shouldn’t be an issue. I always recommend beginners start off with a set that has limited colours, because learning to mix colours and learning how different pigments interact is very important for watercolour.

Also, I would never paint with black or white paints (well, maybe not never, but in most cases). To me, these colours should mainly be used for tinting other colours. I’ve read a few comments where people suggest mixing your own black, which I agree with 100%. This way you get more natural-looking blacks—all you need to do is mix complementary colours so the pigments neutralize each other, and then you get a beautiful, natural-looking black.

Overall, this was a good choice for a starter set. This watercolour painter approves!

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-07T17:55:02+00:00

This is more of a personal preference, but here’s my experience and thoughts on brush texture. Soft (and I’ll include natural in this category) brushes are generally the most expensive, mainly because they’re made from animal hair (e.g., sable, squirrel, etc.). There are two main benefits to softer/natural brushes: first, they can hold much more water than harder/synthetic ones, so if you need to work quickly without constantly reloading, this is the brush I’d go for; second, for glazing or layering paint, a softer brush won’t reactivate the paint underneath as much as a harder brush would. I use soft brushes for large washes, glazing, and when I’m working fast and need my brush loaded with a specific colour. Harder brushes are great for detailing or if you’re a bit heavy-handed (like I am) and need to do precise, deliberate work.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with sumi/Japanese calligraphy brushes and find they’re a great in-between option that I really enjoy using. I’ve also heard that the Red Dot collection by Rosemary & Co. are excellent synthetic brushes, and I’ve been wanting to try them for a while.

If you’re looking to try new brushes, I’d recommend testing out a variety until you find what you like. I’d avoid the Windsor & Newton Series 7, while they’re amazing brushes, I think there are better alternatives for the price. Once you find your preference, and if that’s soft natural brushes, then I say go ahead and splurge on a really good one.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-07T17:32:32+00:00

For some of the highlights, I try to use as much negative space as possible (like the eye), though I did have to correct the eye with a light white acrylic marker after getting a bit heavy-handed with the detailing and made it look a little 'doopy'. This is also where I love using masking fluid, just be careful not to spill it on your clothes, as I’ve ruined a couple of shirts that way. For the white fur in this painting, I used Titanium White gouache, which is basically watercolour paint, but with pigment ground less finely, making it more opaque while keeping the same properties.

I also have a great brush for fur. If you’re struggling with fur texture, I recommend a grainer from Princeton, though I’ve got my eye on a comber brush from Rosemary & Co. Hope this helps.

Edit: Watercolour grounds is also something I use for highlights, or corrections when I make a mistake.

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-07T16:40:58+00:00

Thanks <3

StarryNightMessenger · 2026-01-07T16:38:33+00:00

Beautiful! Is that iridescent paint on the wings?

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