After backing up an iteration, I began to use Painter’s felt pens at fairly small sizes to pick up color from the source image in selected areas; I also switched out of the cloning mode to concoct my own color, switched back to the cloning mode, concocted more colors, and so forth. Flipping my Wacom stylus end for end transforms it from any tool into an eraser, then back again. If it need be said, I’ve given the eraser end of the stylus plenty of exercise over the years.
Here you see the floral study with lots of color added in the flowers and leaves, and some smoothing in the vase’s mixture of cloned and concocted colors. The entire creation is out of balance at this point: I was so deeply engrossed in the foreground detail I put off thinking about the background. It’s easier to work up a painting from background to foreground, but of course, the details are usually more interesting. Will I ever learn? Not likely.