Finished "The Approaching Horror" acrylic 8x8 on canvas board

[GiqueCee]

56. Well, I can draw...

... and, having been a commercial artist for my entire career, my work is pretty representational. Commercial work doesn't really allow one the luxury of a hit-or-miss approach, 'cause the bean-counters are always looking over your shoulder, so I've learned to work as fast as drying paint will allow. Anyway, I sketch my subject matter to establish composition, then do a very light outline of the subject, blocking in background elements ever so faintly. Then I lay in base colors; again, very lightly. With watercolor, you have to work light to dark, unlike oils or acrylics, whose opacity allows a reverse order.
Depending on the subject and the client, I'll sometimes allow "happy accidents" to remain a part of the composition. They can lend an aire of vitality and spontaneity to the work. But I've also done blow-aparts of jet engine sub-assemblies with Rapidographs (a technical pen from before the advent of computers) that don't allow happy anythings, only meticulous precision.
Many of my pieces would be labeled "mixed media", which mortally offends the purists, but I don't worry about any of that. If a dash of colored pencil or a stroke of acrylic white achieves what I want, then I go for it. Phooey on the judgmental stiff-necks!
If you'll excuse me, I have to finish immortalizing a client's 12-year-old grandson at the controls of an excavator! I do have an eclectic client base. Oh, and I'm the art director for an animatronics company. Y'know, animated life-size T-Rexes and stuff. Keeps life interesting.