I started learning to paint with watercolours in Jan 2021, and the first landscape I attempted was sunrise at Haytor on Dartmoor, based on a photo taken by my husband (but somewhere I'm also very familiar with). I was pretty pleased with it at the time, but when I looked at it again the other day I got an urge to have another go at it to see how much I've improved. Here's my latest version:

This was my first attempt, nearly 2 years ago:

(The reference photo is on my husband's website - see if you can find it! https://brucelittle.net/moorland-1 )

The grass in the original photo looks quite dull in the pre-dawn light, and apart from a few rocks here and there is also quite flat and featureless, so I've fallen into my usual trap of trying to slavishly copy the photo rather than interpreting it a bit more artistically! I showed both paintings to my husband and asked him which one was better - expecting something along the lines of "Oh the new one of course!" - but he's far too honest and replied "Well the colours are more realistic in the latest one, but it doesn't sing". Not what I wanted to hear, but honest critique is more helpful! (And I do agree with him) So my question is, how could I have improved the foreground, particularly in terms of colour, while staying faithful to the source? The sun was rising behind the tor, so there would have been no light on the left hand side. Should I have gone even darker/cooler on the left, and exaggerated the cool/warm difference? Or better to change the light source completely and have stronger golden light across more of the foreground? I'm interested to hear your thoughts!