While they are all good, I'm particularly drawn to the lighthouse watercolor - especially because of the limited palette and rendering of the stormy clouds behind the lighthouse. Wonderful!

Thank you, Brian!

Your suggestion appeals to me, Robert. I've painted the same scenes many times, sometimes because I wasn't satisfied with the first one and sometimes because I liked the original and so did it again for my students to see. I do feel like there were a few lessons here for me!

Thank you!

I can see that you were able to get the backwashes to work! Yay!! And I'll let you in on a little secret: these kinds of backwashes work better on cellulose paper (cheap) than cotton paper. If you don't plan to layer, you can get a nice effect this way!

This is fabulous!

It's truly a challenge to figure out our own personal style. For a number of years I treated myself to a watercolor workshop every year or so. After a while, I realized I had become quite good at copying the masters (modern masters that is). When we were challenged to do our own compositions on our own, it all seemed to fall apart. That's when I realized I must not take any more workshops, and paint till I painted the way that made me feel successful, a word I hate to say, because it's all so subjective anyway, but in the end, I am trying to paint watercolors that I think are good. Not to look like another artist's work, but make me react positively to my own work. I do think it's reasonable to admire the way other artists paint - for instance, I love how Sergey Temerev paints clouds. I managed to find a way that I can paint storm clouds. They are similar to his, but not a copy of his. Or when I paint in acrylics, I love to copy the style of Mark Lague (who paints in oils, but I have acrylics). The experimentation is so fun!!

@Brian Igelman Uggh, perfectionism! I'll never get over it as much as I try!

Wow!! This is my favorite kind of cloud and I love to paint clouds like this in watercolor

@Renate Wagner It's just the opposite in watercolor. Start with white and add light values then increasingly darker values, but don't go too far. Soften edges with a damp brush. Once I figured it out, I realized it wasn't that hard, but teaching it? That's another thing! 😁