The perils of painting in watercolour

There definitely are advantages to watercolur - portability and clarity being two of the most obvious, though the clarity takes a great deal more work than the carrying of a wee box and brush.
Clarity can be the proverbial double-edged sword. When you overdo it, sometimes extraordinary measures are needed to clean up your act. That's where I'm at .....

Here's the sequence -
I started a watercolour of peonies, 18"x24" being the required size. I didn't put in a picture of the blank d'Arches  paper - I'll leave that to your imagination.

Step 1  This is one of my favourite parts - just looking for shadows.  So far, so good.

Step 2  Adding a little colour

..........and a little more

And then - oops! Why did I paint in that leaf?

So......
Attempt at retrieval necessitated acrylic over watercolour









 

Adjusting and refining colours.

Now maybe I'll start it over. It's looking less than fresh.

So - will it be watercolour or acrylic this time??