Kavirondo Crane by Lala Woods

Absolutely gorgeous, Lala. The composition, color and subject matter are all superb!

I agree with Seok, very well done. I've just bought some watercolours so will be experimenting with that soon. Keep up the good work!

Very striking!

And you are making big strides, Lala...Watercolour is the most difficult of all, but I think possibly the most rewarding, but my it's unprdictable, isn't it! This is a very attractive image, and I love the way you have washed in the background texture.

Thank you Seok Yam, Stephen, Sharon and Ruth for stopping to look at this and writing such encouraging comments. It's always so good to hear from fellow artists because it can be such a lonely undertaking, and I value very much hearing from you all and reading your comments. Michael you are in for a roller coaster ride with watercolours, such a great medium so do start soon. I hope you have good watercolours, there's no comparison between student and artist paints. Ruth thank you for your encouragement, you always take the time and trouble to have a look and give an instructive critique, and I really appreciate it. I'm desperately in love with watercolours if that's possible, maybe because I've come to it so late in life, and I know that if I was on a desert island I'd have to have an unlimited supply of paints, brushes and paper. I have five paintings I'm supposed to be doing for various people, two in acrylic and three in oil, but I can't drag myself away from watercolour. It's so full of surprises, not always what I want, but I find it very exciting and I'm learning. So there you are Michael, hurry up and join in the fun. It's Halloween tomorrow, think what great Halloween paintings you could produce with some watercolour washes, some imagination, the sound of excited kids in the street, and the help of a good glass or two of wine to warm the cockles! (The wine down the throat, not on the paper!!) :~))

This is very good as Ruth says watercolour is hard to do.Have you though about giving acrylics ago you have much more scope to correct or change.I paint animals in acrylics you can start the painting in a watercolour way then build up the colours.Linda

Thank you Linda for your help and encouragement. I do acrylics, but I don't get on with them very well, I don't like the shiny plasticky finish I get when I use them. It's something I'm doing wrong I know as I have seen some really inspiring acrylic paintings that don't look plasticky at all. I either try to use them as impasto oil or very watery watercolours, and neither works! I've never tried doing watercolour and then acrylic over the top, at the moment still trying to learn watercolour and find my style. Your gallery contains wonderful portraits of animals which I'm presuming are done in watercolour and then acrylic on top and it works wonderfully for you, congratulations.