Here is my (modified) project:

 

Neither watercolor grounder, nor flat wooden boards, were easy for me to come by. But I did try to use gesso for the first time thanks to this class. I will keep eyes out for watercolor grounder in the future. 

Instead of wood, I cut out some disks from a cardboard box. The ridges were still visible after sanding and gesso, so another time, I could try sanding more rigourousely or adding another layer of gesso. 

It was really fun to try and paint on a different surface with watercolor. The paint came right off again at the slightest contact with water. My luna moth's wings are off, but I love it's grumpy expression. And the colors were delightful. I had no natural wood ridges to preserve, so I used a thick black for the background. The salt didn't work, possibly because my cardboard under the paint was so dark already. So I painted it over and used some lifting and dots of white ink instead. 

Thank you for a wonderful class. I learned a lot and had fun.

 

Edit June 1st 2026:

I had a cardboard disk left over, so I did this Io moth on it: