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[Jenny A]

It's all about osmosis.  Whether it's moisture or pigment, stuff moves from high concentration to low concentration.  Apply wet paint to a dry sheet of watercolor paper and you get a hard crisp edge.  Apply wet paint to damp or wet paper and you get a soft or even fuzzy edge.  Apply wet paint or water next to damp paint and the wet will invade the merely damp.

That sounds so satisfying. The thing that appeals to me about it, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you can use one color and get multiple shades out of it, which is much more in line with what I'm good at; drawing/sketching/shading/highlighting, and more importantly, steers clear of what I'm horrible at; mixing colors. I can't paint worth a shit when it comes to getting the colors right. I have the strokes down, but the damn colors.

Well more water equals lighter color and less means darker.   But a shade is a technical term meaning a hue to which gray or a compliment or almost compliment has been added.  It's not just darker but muddier. For that you need another color.  But maybe we shouldn't derail this thread talking about paint. 

If you want to talk paint (and who in their right mind wouldn't), let's move the conversation elsewhere.