When I got home yesterday afternoon, I carried out my plan of doing another painting from the same sketch. Same source and same paper but my tubes of watercolour, brushes and general painting set up:
I used a limited palette for this: Sennelier Lemon Yellow, Chinese Orange and Ultramarine Deep along with Rose from my old Royal and Langnickel set. I rather lost count of how many different colours I dipped into from the pans but it was at least twice as many and probably more. I also used some watercolour pencils for an underdrawing and to add some extra lines over the top.
The colours are more muted here (apart from the rose and green in the top left); partly it was easier to get subtle mixes and also I’ve only done one painting session on this image while the first painting rested overnight and then I re-worked quite a few areas with further layer. By and large, I prefer this version although I did like the blue to orange neutral in the bottom left of the first version. However, I was trying not to just repaint what I’d done but to experience starting from the same point with different material and, in the experience of mixing and applying the paint, I was definitely happier with the tubes.
For the future: trying pans for plein air (ie. out in the wild) work, which is where I think their portability and the range of pre-mixed starting points might be a boon.