Experimenting with larger brush sizes and watercolour washes

I am very much a 'dry brush' kind of girl when it comes to my botanical work. I realised very quickly while working on my RBGE diploma that this technique worked for me and I pretty much stuck to it for the duration of the course. Now that I've completed the course I am trying to take the time to experiment more and 'have fun' again while I paint, and not get so hung up about the results.

This is the second time I have painted these seedpods, the first time was for the diploma. I wanted to experiment with larger brushes in an attempt to get faster at producing work. The image on the left took 23.5 hours using brushes sized 1 to 000. The image on the right took 9.5 hours using brushes sized 4 and 1.

At a quick glance there's not a huge difference, bearing in mind that the left image has been professionally scanned and the right image is a product of my crude photography skills so the colours are off!! Clearly, the left image is more detailed, crisp and botanically correct, but the right image is still a 'nice' rendition of the Rewarewa seedpod, no? I've lost the highlights and contrast the second time around due to using the larger brush and going in too soon with a wash that I could not pull highlights out of later on. But, all in all, a successful experiment!