The background in the photo is a pond with a reflective surface. Two questions;
1- Would you paint the entire dark background so it would a appear to have a smooth surface? T

hen paint the flowers on top of the background
OR
2- Would you paint the background around the flowers?
I have tried to paint around the flowers but then the surface does not appear uniform where the flower starts and the background meet.
Thanks a bunch
Comments
Option one for sure.
Denis
I see where you’re coming from here, but fraught with drying delay, pigment/varnish binding and unintended glazing effects.
Though, something may be possible with your resist layer idea using the rubber solution (masking fluid) applied in water color painting to preserve white.
So much easier to do the background first in a pigment and Liquin layer (sans SDM) and the subject over the top.
Denis