Second dandelion painting coming along

This was fairly early in the day, I'd just put in the stalks of the seeds:



And this was at the end of the day. The colors aren't quite right, the turquoise is more intense, and the top is not too much darker than the bottom, if at all. The seed heads actually show up a bit better in real life than they do here. I'll take a better picture when it's all finished, hopefully by Tuesday.



I need to bring out the moths more, put in some of the details in the wings, and also do something with the large washes of the turquoise which is very uneven right now.

I also think that the lighter blue that I used for the seed head background in the first dandelion painting is a more successful color than this one (more indigo shade, although not too dense). The darker background makes a more contrasty seed head and looks more jewel like than dandelion like, I think. The problem was also present in the first painting, with the seed heads that I added later, although I hadn't figured out the problem until just now. (In this painting, I also added tiny bright white highlights, which probably added to the jewel effect. I'm still trying to decide if I like it or not.)