Painting Canoes Again

Having completed some textile art, I had the urge to get my acrylic paints out again. I started a new painting in the last few weeks having been inspired once again by my recent canoe trip. Yes, I'll be painting canoes again. I am working with tube acrylics and I seem to be getting more comfortable with it. Because acrylic dries so fast, it doesn't give me a lot of time to blend the paints and that was frustrating for me. I've tried using retarder which is a gel medium I mix with the paint that keeps it wet longer but I don't like working with it. Acrylic paints now come in different formats. There is heavy body paint, soft body paint, fluid, liquid. I've tried them all. Presently I am painting with a mixture of all of these in search of what I feel the most comfortable with.
I chose a long narrow horizontal format for this painting and it will be done from a photograph of last year's canoe trip.

Drawing of my subject done in gray watercolour pencil

Detail

Blocking in colour

Working on the background forests and the mist rising from the water.

I don't always have all the details worked out in my mind when I begin painting and often ideas come during the process of painting. At the moment, I am thinking about the canoes and what colour they should be. The canoes we used were white. I have painted red canoes in my paintings when they are the focal point. Red and green are complimentary so it works with the green of the forests. I also like green canoes, however, there is already so much green in a painting like this, I hesitate to use it here. This painting will be more about the early morning light and the mist on the water than the canoes, so green might blend them into the scenery enough that they don't steal the show. Then again, white canoes may also work. I am in a quandary. If you have any suggestions, send me a comment.