Now at this point of the painting I need a to give the depth and contrast a little more thought. I begin by adding some strength to the dark parts of the painting, the hedge lines and the fences need a bit of lifting as well because I could finish up with a very flat picture.

I mix some Prussian Blue with some Light Red being careful not to overdo the water, I then apply the resulting mix to the stronger parts of the painting. As that begins to dry I add some Burnt Umber to the blue and red mix to make it darker, now I use even less water to avoid the awful tide marks that I mentioned earlier. When that has dried I now rub off some of the speckles of masking fluid and apply a weak wash of Cadmium Yellow to the main areas.
I take care not to rub the masking fluid off the fences because I want to keep some of them a nice clean white as this will enable me to create a strong contrast. In fact I will do the dark parts now so that the paint will be dry when I come to rub the masking fluid off.

At this point I think the house needs to be established with some very careful brush strokes I highlight the edge of the roof and the gable end, the windows done I think the whole painting is still to weak so when everything is dry I shall add strong colour to all of it.

Because the old farmhouse is the focal point of the painting I need to resist the temptation to paint it at this stage, I need it to be a crisp white so I shall leave it.