Karen Stelt

I think the key to beautiful handwriting is not the particular alphabet, but the 4 S's.  Shape, Slant, Size, and Spacing.  If you can make these more consistent, your handwriting instantly looks better.

"More sizing = less movement"
This isn't right, sorry.  More sizing means more movement across the surface of the paper.  Pigments travel and blend better with more sizing.  Less sizing means more soaking into the paper.
But it also depends on the paint - certain pigments travel more.  The binder matters too.  

On another note, your progress is stellar.  Thanks for the updates.

1. A transparent yellow ochre:  Transparent yellow oxide (Daniel Smith) is my pick.
2. Brushes:  The premier watercolor brush is made from the tail hairs of the kolinsky sable, a mink that lives in Siberia.  The hairs are naturally tapered at the end and form a beautiful point, but the thicker end of the hair forms a belly to the  brush that holds lots of water.  It releases water slowly.  They are perfect brushes for watercolor.  There are many synthetic and synthetic/sable blends now that work well too.  
3. Regarding colors in pans: Some rewet better than others.  Winsor Newton sells pans and tubes because they use different formulas for the two.  The pan paints have glycerine added to them.  Glycerine and honey are humectants - they absorb moisture in the air.  They keep the paints from getting too dry.   I just buy Winsor Newton tubes and stir in a few drops of  glycerine to make pans. I also add glycerine to other brands for pigments that get too hard to rewet.  And yes, that varies by pigment.  Some are really difficult.  
4. For most paintings, it makes the most sense to work with dry colors and rewet them.  If working really big, it's easier to get enough of each wash mixed if they are wet to start.
5. Getting to know pigments is key - transparent, opaque, staining, granulating.  As you are already finding, it depends on what look you want.  Artist grade paints have fewer mixes of pigments and more "traditional" pigments with distinct characteristics.  
6. Paint brushes come dipped in gum arabic, which is an acacia tree sap.  It is also the binder for watercolors, gouache, and soft (chalk) pastels.  
7. Gouache is similar to watercolor.  It was traditionally used for advertising art, as its matte finish was easy to photograph.  The colors used to have white fillers to make transparent pigments opaque.  The pigment particle size is larger in gouache.  It keeps the pigment on the surface of the paper. They weren't worried about lightfastness.   Winsor newton gouache has stayed more traditional.  M graham, and Daniel Smith are two brands made for artists today. They are lightfast and have limited if any white fillers.  
8. Paper: The best paper is made from cotton.  Cellulose papers work fine too. Paper is soaked in gelatin water (sizing) to add some resistance to water absorption.  Some brands also spray the surface with sizing.  They all act a little different depending on the treatments.  More sizing = less movement.   140 lb is a good weight too work with.  Thinner than that, and it's just a wrinkly mess.  Thicker = more expensive.
9. Blocks: I buy Strathmore 500 ready cut paper in 8x10 and 11x14 and padding compound adhesive and I clamp and glue edges to make my own blocks.  They are cheaper than buying blocks and I get my favorite paper.  I have also glued up Arches in this manner.  I also make my own sketchbooks using these papers.  If working bigger, you need to stretch and tape it.
10.  If you hate your hot press paper, use it for colored pencils.
11. Watercolor ground - very useful if you scrub away too much paper and need to fix the surface.  Can also be applied to any surface to make it almost like watercolor paper.
12. Watercolor Scrubbers: Jerry's artarama.  
12 Mask: Test it out.  Some rip some papers.  Very handy sometimes.  Also painters tape, a clear wax crayon, and scrubbers are useful for getting and keeping highlights.

Colored pencils, wax pastels, oil pastels are all a blend of pigment plus oil and wax as a binder.  More wax in wax pastels and colored pencils, more oil in oil pastels.  The wax and oil are just a way of holding pigment. Cheaper products have cheaper pigments and less pigment.  Usually not lightfast.  Cheaper products use cheaper oils and waxes, and will change over time, so they have a shorter lifespan. Cheaper oil pastels tend to get gummy.  Some colors yellow. Expensive products use lightfast pigments and high quality oils and waxes.  Artist grade will last a long time - my mungyo oil pastels are 15 years old and have not changed.  I have caran d'ache and sennelier too, but they're only 5 years old.  No changes.  

I use colored pencils to add details to oil pastel works.  I use wax pastels to lay in initial layers on colored pencil works - mineral spirits on a cotton swab help with blending.  Then I can put in 2 or 3 more layers with colored pencil.  It saves a lot of time.  

Two wax pastels I have are Koh-I-Noor hard pastels and Caran D'Ache neocolor.  Both are like crayons, but more pigmented.  Caran d'ache are the cadillacs - they are very pigmented.  Also I can order individual colors when I use one up.

The first oil pastels were made in Japan by the Sakura company for use in schools in 1925.  Sakura still makes two lines of oil pastels - Specialist and Expressionist.  The Specialist line is very hard, the Expressionist line are student grade and softer.  They would be an excellent set to try.  They are non toxic.  

Sennelier, made in France, are the softest; they are lightfast, but use some toxic pigments like cadmiums and cobalts.  Their website has a chart with pigment numbers. They are expensive. Mungyo Artist Gallery are made in Korea.  They are slightly firmer than Sennelier, similar to Caran D'Ache.  They are my favorite, non toxic and lightfast, but no pigment info available.  Caran d'ache makes Neopastels in Switzerland, slightly harder than Mungyo Artist Gallery, softer than Sakura Specialist.  They are non toxic and lightfast, pigment info available, and very expensive.

All of them are a mix of wax, oil and pigment.  The more expensive brands use lightfast pigments in higher concentration.  Sennelier sells a spray you can use to seal finished paintings.  I just frame them behind glass with a mat to keep the painting off the glass.  I use cotton watercolor paper with two coats of  Colourfix pastel primer, which gives the paper a fine sandpaper texture that holds lots of layers of color.

I don't buy art supplies from China because of lightfast concerns and quality issues.  I highly recommend Mungyo artist gallery and Sakura Expressionist. They are fabulous and affordable.  

When I am afraid to start, I remind myself I am not an art supply collector, but an artist.  Oil pastels, like watercolors, are nice because it is just a piece of paper, no expensive canvas to worry about.  A5 is the size I recommend to students for starting oil pastels because you want to apply a lot of layers, and finish the picture in a reasonable time frame. Does your paper have some texture, "tooth"?  That helps hold the layers.  Find a sunset photo you like and dig in.  Apply color in layers, like using a crayon.  Work light to dark.  I find 3 layers in I can start to smudge things together with a finger.  Keep a rag handy to wipe off color contamination on pastels.  when the paper won't take more layers, you can leave it for 24 hours, and some of the oil will have soaked into the paper and hardened things a bit and then you can add highlights and shadows as needed to finish.

Here are two of mine.  A5 cotton paper, Mungyo artist gallery oil pastels.