The Tortoise and the Hare - WW monthly challenge

Watercolor Wednesdays has a monthly challenge, in addition to the weekly prompts. This month it was Aesop's Fables, and I chose The Tortoise and the Hare because it reminds me of publishing. Slow and steady wins the race (or at least that's my hope). I started this painting after midnight last night, so it's not exactly the way I would have gone about it during the day. However, it was a fun experiment.

I started out with a navy colored pastel paper and drew on it with watercolor crayons.


I liked this stage so much that I almost didn't go any further. However, Watercolor Wednesdays implies the fact that I should probably use some water. So I got out my spray bottle, which made it look like this, which I also liked.


This morning, I really wanted to use acrylic to finish the painting, but first I tried regular watercolor paints. That wasn't very effective on the navy paper (I knew it wouldn't be, but it never hurts to try). So I decided to use my gouache paints.

Note: I don't like gouache. I can't make it do what I want, it smells weird, and it cracks after it dries.

But I decided to use it anyway, since this was an experiment. The first bits of gouache I painted didn't look good, but I stuck with it. I like the way it turned out, other than the cracking of the paint as I untaped the painting from the board. (Anybody know a way to make it crack proof?)

Here's the final result:


What's your favorite Aesop's Fable?