Another Prickly Pear..

I painted this for a demonstration for my watercolor pupil.  I like it and will save it for my senior art show next Dec. before I graduate, but boy was it a lesson in layers.

I've read about getting too much pigment on the paper and having subsequent layers mess up the paint beneath several times.  As I was demonstrating I was going back and forth between my student's easel and mine and had to keep starting over after the paper had dried.  By the time I got this done, I had really fought getting the heavily pigmented areas, particularly the reds, to lay down evenly.  Next time, less passes over each area with paint.

This is on 300 lb. Arches paper, cold pressed and is 22"x30" in size; full sheet.