Spot practice

When my sons were taking music lessons, they were encouraged to practice spots where they couldn't play well.  I wanted to paint the burning sunset I saw in Marion when I was going to change highways from 64 to I55 last week. I applied this spot practicing in music to the watercolor.  I painted just the sunset on 9x12 watercolor paper four times, examining each sunset and making sure it is close to the image I had.  When I finally felt better, I tried on 18x24 paper.  This spot practice worked well;  first of all I didn't feel pressured to make the first paint perfect since I learned what color I should use.  Most importantly I didn't have to waste large paper!  Spot practice does not apply to everything, but it does for my watercolor project.