Tooting my own horn

I have always considered myself, with great hubris, to be a renaissance man. I am in constant search of physical, intellectual, and artistic pursuits to please my insatiable palate for humanities. I am ever the athlete competing in running and cycling races, i like to consider myself an intelligent guy as I am pursuing my bachelors degree and read constantly, and my artistic pursuits have included playing the guitar and most recently photography. Well I have one more to add to the list of the arts. For a long time I have wanted to learn how to paint... since i was a kid actually. I always thought i would need to take a class to learn how to handle the brush and know what to buy. I got tired of waiting to find a decent local class and decided to just go for it. I finally got myself a cheap set of watercolor paints, a set of brushes, and some watercolor paper. Over the last two days I have been playing with different techniques and getting to know my brushes and different strokes. I have used some of the bird photos that I have taken as models for my new found hobby. The pictures I am posting are of pictures I have painted so far. There should be plenty more to follow the few I have painted already. The first is my first painting since the finger paintings and paint by numbers I did as a kid, it is a yellow crowned night heron. The second is a brown pelican near the Skyway bridge, and the last there is a tricolored heron. I am getting better with the brush strokes and details such as feather definition and shading. We'll see how things progress as i learn to paint more. :)