Hey, hey,
Birthday child! Congratulations. I send you a bunch of love and luck.

Finally, the cat is out of the bag. Indeed, it is what we thought, everyone lies, is what Dr. House said, and Mr. Monk, the private detective, tells the same. It's a habit.
Coincidence? I doubt it, only idiots fall for .... ch... I don't know, it cannot be charm. It must be the pressure from outside or the stupid way we are raised. Something about giving a chance... blah blah.

As we know, a pressed potato and tomato both look messy, still, the cat you painted is way better than rotten food which comes with a different smell and that cellar still smells. No pelicans around?

Lousy paper?
I struggle with it as wel. I kind of rubbed it off so the solution is: bigger brush, thinner (wetter layer), and start with a background colour and let it dry (not always needed if you like to paint wet in wet, which is possible with all types of paint, not Tempera or water colour only).
So let it dry. It must go fast with you. Also good to have some background ready.

Black is good, covers more than white (white covers nothing) or take blue or green or brown whatever you have. It's not important. Well, you know what I did during the sleepless night I made backgrounds, no need for much light either.
Keep the paint thin. Directly on the wet brush. You can add water and keep or make it wetter. Fine if there's water on it, it will dry. You can shake the paper a bit to make it run the other way.
It's what I did yesterday among other things I did. If you make more backgrounds, you have them ready if you start painting.

If you like you can give a second layer but there's no need to if it looks fine enough plus you can work on it later, it's up to you.
Once finished (let it dry) you can give it a wash with a certain colour or the water you rinse the pencil in (mine was blue so I added that over the black background and a painting of a flower on a black background. Just try it out.

Thanks for the cat! You are awesome and black contains plenty of colours and gives peace of mind.