It is! I tend to cheat sometimes and use gouche for the occasional bling highlight but it just doesn't look as nice. People think watercolor is an easy medium just because it comes in pan paints for kids, they don't know how temperamental this medium actually is! Water gets loaded up in the brush and it can spew it out, paints can spread into each other if it's not dry enough, it can get too wet really quickly, etc etc etc. X_X