Water ripples again

It was time to enjoy my new toy again.  My airbrush.  I charged the battery to 100 percent and I was ready to rock and roll. 

My subject matter would again be water ripples.  There's something about that ephemeral shimmer that hypnotizes me.   

This time around I would use a semi-sized Xuan paper and see how that would work with my alum solution.

I began the laborious task of laying down the shimmers with the alum solution.  Perfect opportunity to practice my center-tip and side-tip brushstrokes.

I angled my desk lamp to see the tracks better,

After that was completed, I placed my paper over newspaper and was ready for the airbrush.

The resulting piece was extremely disappointing,

The alum solution did not provide a strong blocking, or "resist" effect.  The tracks were mottled and faint.  Definitely not the result I was anticipating.  I didn't know if that was due to the fact that the paper was already semi-sized.

Perplexing.

I was distraught enough to abandon my project.  I was not being complacent but I had always accepted the fact that a lot of my attempts ended up in trash cans. 

Couple of days later I decided to re-engage my painting, hopefully to gain a fresh perspective and figure a way out.  The tracks did look more succinct now that the paper was thoroughly dried.

Should I airbrush on more layers of the indigo and hope for a more intense contrast or should I repeat my alum solution brushstrokes and then airbrush again and hope for a better reveal?

I had waited a few days to come this far, no harm in waiting for a few more days to devise a more concrete solution.