The essence of moisture is wetness

I obtained a lot of useful feedback on my previous post about painting rivers. I made an executive decision to stay with green, and to get the essential river appearance via several coats of gloss varnish.

This is still a trial/ WIP, and the rivers still need their banks flocked and rocks picked out. Here are my four trial pieces:

Plain green

Lighter banks, subtle brown/ green middle

Lighter green streaks

Lighter banks, darker brown middle

I think that the combination of darker and lighter shades works best, but it does require a degree of artistry to achieve an aesthetically pleasing result.

I used two coats of gloss varnish, which isn't really apparent in the above pictures. Here they are all together, with some natural light reflections. The subtle differences between pieces aren't at all noticeable in these pictures. I also put in the GF9 bridge with some of the FSS roads.

Feedback welcomed!

Edit: See the final results here