Can it be more dramatic?

Maybe..Although it was a very fun piece to do, it did take me a very long time. I personally never really liked watercolors. Ones I seen were always lacking details, pigment wasn't concentrated...too many wash spots left. So I never bother with watercolors but did I did a couple of pieces and instead of doing them the traditional style I see often, I just created the piece to my liking. An advice I found myself telling others often. It's a material you are the artist, you choice how you want your artwork to look like. Instead of trying to learn how to do something like everyone else, find a way to make the medium work for you. So my watercolors are rarely washes. Doesn't mean I don't include for in my works when needed but overall the painting is heavily pigmented and layered. This result in taking a very...very long time to complete a work. It's not like acrylic where you can wait a few minutes and then continue. When working with layers you have to wait a while, more if you want dark areas like the cavity on tree. It took me several days to complete those areas because if you overwork the paper when its wet, you can ruin the surface. I believe this work took me close to 3 months to complete. It's 18x24in so it's a medium size piece.

I was at a local park and I saw this tree that was somewhat damage. I am guessing from the storms/hurricanes we get. I took photos of various angles and pick whichever one I liked the best. I live in Florida and during summer it is hot enough to melt your car, so no plein-air. Next, I looked closely at the colors of the tree. Just making it brown or various shades of brown wouldn't give the tree much life. The tree itself was already damaged and had somewhat "dead" parts so I incorporated some blues and grey. Don't like flat black so I mixed it with blue and gave it a very rich, dark indigo. I left some faded areas inside the cavity to give it depth. I would start of with a wash and slowly start building up my layers and intensity of my colors. Another tip is starting with a light wash because it helps expand the paper and result to less bleeding in future layers. When you paint watercolors, the paper absords the water(pigment water) and that expand the paper. Once it dries its no longer in the same stage as a brand new sheet, making it easier not to bleed the colors. With that said, you need want to be careful on how much water your use. I seen artist just do a clear wash on the entire paper prior to starting their first layer. Experiment and see what work best for you. As for the leaves, they just brush marks. You do not have to sit there and draw out ever single leaf, they are far away that strokes do the job just fine.

When going I would recommend taking out your phone and just play with various angles. Doesn't really matter what it is. Sometimes a angle can be the difference between a boring painting and very exciting one.