I Hope I Am Learning from My Mistakes, because I Am Making a LOT of Them!

Nice subject - I was having fun, puddling in w/w.

Still having wet fun, but the reds may be too dark, too fast.

More work on the leaves.

Here's where it went wrong. I decided to mask all the leaves, and try to get a graded wash of several hues.
The edges, after 2 -3 washes, started leaving oozy marks from the stapled areas, leaking onto the painting area. I tried a desperate rescue attempt. I used a large, flat, soft brush to remove all the background I had done. It was removed reasonably well, but so was the sizing! I tried [no choice, really] to go very dark, and I did, but I don't like it. I will try again, changing the format a bit, making it narrower, and apply the lesson learned - MASK FIRST.    

I tried several washes of alizarin crimson and phthalo blue, but , to my eye, it does not look at all appealing.
Back to the proverbial drawing board!