Lifting Leaves

Here’s a detail from my recent Palm House painting, showing the glossy leaves on a bush in the shadows.
After a number of attempts at painting this foreground foliage, I decided to use the lifting technique to ‘find’ the leaves in the shadows.

I painted the whole bush in detail, in a variety of greens blues and yellows, these were staining colours.
I then added dark indigo shadows all over it, I find this colour lifts quite easily, so when the paper was completely dry, I used clean water on a brush to rediscover the leaves.
I think I may try this technique again on a more abstract piece.