Soak or wet the paper with water. The longer you soak the paper the more sizing you will remove. You can soak watercolor paper for seconds up to 24 hours depending on how you like your paper. The more sizing left in the paper the more detail you will be able to paint. You can add additional sizing to the paper.
Pencils vary from light to dark.
It is not necessary to have a dark pencil line for painting watercolor. You may even want to carefully erase the pencil line when you have finished the painting. All rights reserved.