First project of 2012

I've decided to work on something larger than usual.  This piece is almost a full watercolor sheet.  Hopefully that doesn't mean it will take a lot more time.  I was setting up a still-life to photograph; and our flame-point Siamese decided to help.  This is the photo.

So far I have in the basic tones for the whole piece.  I used mask-out for the flowers so I could drop in some darker color behind them.  This photo is with the mask removed.  I admit, it was a lot of mask-out, but I was going for detail and this was the best way to do it that I know.  I wanted to get to this stage right away and get the mask removed in a timely manner.  I have noticed the longer you leave the mask on the paper, the harder it is to get it off.