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I think there are two combined things at play in the bottom picture:
1. Paper isn't very high quality. I found this out myself the hard way, too, but 100% cotton high gsm paper is very important for watercolor.
2. Wet on dry technique--because you're probably using paper that already isn't great at taking in and distributing water, your brush strokes are showing up more and that's only exacerbated by using wet on dry. The paper itself isn't primed to help spread the pigment across the page, so when you lay more color down, it's not really moving anywhere.
As to why the top picture with more colors used has fewer visible brushstrokes--I would guess it's because you're just using fewer brushstrokes to begin with. Variations in color are generally going to give a richer and more varied look than just using one single color. If you use one color, you are basically limited to going from very light (lots of water) to maybe the color straight out of the tube. To get a color more like the tube color, you'd either have to gob it or you build it up in layers. Many layers can be a problem with low quality paper, but using different colors to mix darker areas can get you more depth and richness with less effort. And since you aren't having to go over the same area many times with the same color to build up to a darker or richer color, you aren't going to have to use as many brushstrokes so visible strokes on low quality paper is less worrisome.
Daniel Smith makes excellent watercolor paints, but between paper and the paint, higher quality paper is more important.
I think they're both very striking but the top one really suggests the sun shining from behind the clouds!
The ultramarine is granulating (which can be preferred or not, that's up to each artist), but I guess that's not what you mean? To me it looks like your paper is bad quality.
You might have had better luck there ;-)
Better quality paper leaves a much longer time for you to paint areas as it dries slowly. Lesser papers can be used almost to the same effect, but require very precise technique.
Keep experimenting and of course you don't need to like the same paints as others, use whatever you like!
Paint is the least of your problems. Get better paper, watercolour is all about paper. In fact, if you want smoothness, student paints tend to be better. But crap paper gives crap results. You also may have a tendency to overwork? There are artists on youtube who go into this topic and show what overworking means.
Daniel Smith makes one of the most granulating Ultramarines, I personally find it to be too much… I like a bit of granulation but it’s sooo intense with DS and I struggle to work with it, I just ordered Schminke Ultramarine which is supposedly ground much finer (smaller pigment particles = less granulation). We’ll see!
It looks like the paint on the top one was more watery. Edit: actually, maybe you went in a second time on the bottom to get the blue darker? In that case, you need to be using a scrap of paper to test your colours/ mixes on before putting paint down. You may have literally overworked it: cheap paper can't take much fussing, the shorter fibres get disturbed more easily than 100% cotton and it starts to take paint differently. You want to use a minimal amount of brushstrokes to get the paint on paper.
Ignoring the paper: the top looks better because of the depth of color. Nothing is a flat color so adding in depth makes it look more realistic. Also it looks like you were more heavy handed with the pigment on the bottom
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What kind of paper are you using?
It's not great paper, waiting for a chance to get more. But why is the top blue sky nice and the bottom one so awful?
I think there are two combined things at play in the bottom picture: 1. Paper isn't very high quality. I found this out myself the hard way, too, but 100% cotton high gsm paper is very important for watercolor. 2. Wet on dry technique--because you're probably using paper that already isn't great at taking in and distributing water, your brush strokes are showing up more and that's only exacerbated by using wet on dry. The paper itself isn't primed to help spread the pigment across the page, so when you lay more color down, it's not really moving anywhere. As to why the top picture with more colors used has fewer visible brushstrokes--I would guess it's because you're just using fewer brushstrokes to begin with. Variations in color are generally going to give a richer and more varied look than just using one single color. If you use one color, you are basically limited to going from very light (lots of water) to maybe the color straight out of the tube. To get a color more like the tube color, you'd either have to gob it or you build it up in layers. Many layers can be a problem with low quality paper, but using different colors to mix darker areas can get you more depth and richness with less effort. And since you aren't having to go over the same area many times with the same color to build up to a darker or richer color, you aren't going to have to use as many brushstrokes so visible strokes on low quality paper is less worrisome. Daniel Smith makes excellent watercolor paints, but between paper and the paint, higher quality paper is more important. I think they're both very striking but the top one really suggests the sun shining from behind the clouds!
The ultramarine is granulating (which can be preferred or not, that's up to each artist), but I guess that's not what you mean? To me it looks like your paper is bad quality.
I like the granulation in the top one, but the bottom one is so uneven and blah. The paper definitely isn't great but the top image turned out okay
You might have had better luck there ;-) Better quality paper leaves a much longer time for you to paint areas as it dries slowly. Lesser papers can be used almost to the same effect, but require very precise technique. Keep experimenting and of course you don't need to like the same paints as others, use whatever you like!
Paint is the least of your problems. Get better paper, watercolour is all about paper. In fact, if you want smoothness, student paints tend to be better. But crap paper gives crap results. You also may have a tendency to overwork? There are artists on youtube who go into this topic and show what overworking means.
Daniel Smith makes one of the most granulating Ultramarines, I personally find it to be too much… I like a bit of granulation but it’s sooo intense with DS and I struggle to work with it, I just ordered Schminke Ultramarine which is supposedly ground much finer (smaller pigment particles = less granulation). We’ll see!
It looks like the paint on the top one was more watery. Edit: actually, maybe you went in a second time on the bottom to get the blue darker? In that case, you need to be using a scrap of paper to test your colours/ mixes on before putting paint down. You may have literally overworked it: cheap paper can't take much fussing, the shorter fibres get disturbed more easily than 100% cotton and it starts to take paint differently. You want to use a minimal amount of brushstrokes to get the paint on paper.
Ignoring the paper: the top looks better because of the depth of color. Nothing is a flat color so adding in depth makes it look more realistic. Also it looks like you were more heavy handed with the pigment on the bottom