Often, I redesign my compositions and ideas before starting to paint. In this scene, the paper was first textured in watercolor and then I painted the buildings in acrylic, letting some of the texture show through. This is a difficult technique because watercolor dries lighter in value, acrylic dries darker and once acrylic has been applied, watercolor will not adhere. Alcohol was dropped on top of the leaf shapes in the foreground in order to reveal some of the texture underneath.