Ripples

As you know, I'm interested in everything in terms of subjects for painting: trees, clouds, skies, faces, flowers, vegetables, tea cups, ... One thing I would love to be able to paint in watercolours is ripples, well, the sea in general, waves, light, movement, sunny days, stormy days... but let's start with ripples.

This one here on the left was done by applying Schmincke masking fluid to draw the ripples. I like that particular masking fluid because it comes in a little pipette dispenser and it's quite good for drawing fairly fine lines. I use the blue-tinted masking fluid rather than the transparent one, as I need to see what areas I've masked.
Then, once the masking fluid is completely dry, it's just a matter of applying a wash of colour (Schmincke's Helio Turquoise - PB16) with a big brush.

For this one, I started the same way as the one above (using Sennelier's Phthalo Turquoise, PG50), then, when the paint was completely dry, I added extra ripples with the masking fluid. And when that was completely dry, I painted some areas with a slightly darker mix (PG50 with a touch of burnt sienna for the darker greener parts, and PG50 with ultramarine for the bluer area in the centre).

Neither is close to the original photograph, but this is a start at least!

I'm wondering if I should do a very very light wash before applying the masking fluid - a pale yellow and maybe some very pale red in some areas? To give the ripples more life?