My first watercolor paintings

Everybody says that watercolor is one of the most if not the most difficult of painting methods. The same was confirmed by a lecturer in the watercolor course that I attended with 7 other people yesterday in a nice studio in Vinohrady.

It is true that it is very hard to get a result from watercolor that you intended. But it is probably the unexpected that this technique brings which is so attractive for me. I am completely new to it and originally wanted to learn how to use watercolors so that I can paint outdoors - on our walks and travels. My aim is to be able to make quick sketches whenever I would have some time - with kids or between other responsibilities. I prefer using color and brush to using pencil, painting to drawing so I needed a way to sketch with colors and brushes. The watercolors just seem to be the perfect solution.

Please see below my first pictures in the order as I did them during the course. The first one at the top was to try to do anything with the paints in order to try out how the colors work. I call it a 'Forest'. The second picture was to try a quick copy of a landscape based on some other famous artist painting. Mine is based on a Czech landscape painter Antonin Hudecek.
And the last picture was to do a quick sketch of a still-life. I did apples in the bowl.

I am really excited about trying out more watercolors and hope to experiment a lot in near future.