Fighting the Wind and Easy Goin

Bird's the word lately. Just completed these two Egret watercolors. The first one is an Egret fighting a stiff headwind. The background sky was painted wet on wet (I brushed on clear water and worked carefully around the Egret) and another glaze (after the wet on wet was bone dry) to darken the sky in strategic locations. The bird was painted wet on dry with a lot of graduated passages. Subtle value gradation here is very important. The second watercolor painting is an Egret in full flight with the sky painted wet on dry. Some granulation and blossoms gives the background character. The Egret, like the prior painting, has a lot of subtle value gradations with some very no nonsense strokes to give the impression of feathers. Both painting were done in preparation for a workshop next Wednesday. The Chinese symbol here meands "Peace" and not "Fook Yu"