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Watercolours are so tempting to re-visit now and again – for the same reasons artists who are new to painting gravitate to them as their medium of choice. Watercolours clean up easily, and pigments (particularly colours that come in tubes), are incredibly concentrated. The challenge, however, is how to control them while still maintaining a loose quality in your work.
For example, if you wet the paper too much, the colour runs away from you and goes everywhere; if you don't wet the paper enough, the paint stays where it is, and doesn't run enough in order to create blooms and other interesting effects. Wet-in-wet effects are easily accomplished; but again, if there's too much water on the paper, dropping one colour into another colour often creates a muddy passage that can't be corrected.
Which brings me to another topic: watercolour is not very forgiving, which in turn brings me to another topic: have a game plan. On the other side of the spectrum, oils are the most forgiving. If an area isn't working out, you can easily just wipe it away and try something different, since oils take hours or days to dry. Improvising is much easier. Watercolour paint, on the other hand, requires not only a delicate touch, but requires a game plan. The final result may look loose and improvised, but behind that is a lot of forethought and planning: knowing exactly how viscous your working surface needs to be to create backwashes and blooms while at the same time controlling them to create your desired effect.
Watercolors are so tempting. You get effects that you can't get with other mediums, although watered-down acrylics get you somewhere in the neighbourhood of the effects that are so prized by watercolourists.
So, to watercolour or not to watercolour? Perhaps it's time to pack up my oils and "get back into the flow" and enjoy the many unpredictable "happy accidents" that watercolours are so famous for.