This old dog is learning a new trick

I'll show you more tomorrow, but I'm super excited:

I'm turning 46 today. Not a big deal, but on my birthday I like to treat myself with something fun : a day off work, a walk in the city....and best of all, if I have a little leisure time, a new skill.

I dabbed in watercolor before. I had to do some in art school. I'm still mad at our illustration teacher who had a very much try and error kind of non-pedagogy: "It's crap. Try again". I managed to learn a lot anyway, but not so much watercolor. It's a very difficult technique. You need a teacher, someone to help along the way. So for my birthday, I was like "it's time, let's learn watercolor". 

I follow Shari Blaukopf for what? Years? She has a very inspiring blog. She makes you feel like you should get to work and learn something today. She's teaching in university if I understand well? I was looking for the lessons I didn't get when I was in art school. I needed something very professional, a real course, not a tutorial...And I think I found what I wanted.

What you see is my first try, and it's not finished ( I reworked the composition twice since) so don't judge too hard! But I'm having tremendous fun, and can't wait to practice, and learn more.

 
Link to the course :http://www.craftsy.com/mlp/ShariBlaukopf_M

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I realized today that I have spent a little bit more than a quarter of my life in California. So I took a very special decision : for now on I will stop juggling between my two cultures, and write in French what comes in French...and in English what comes in English. I find very hard to be stuck in the middle translating everything.
I think you will like me better if I'm enjoying myself, so please, bear with me while I embrace 2 cultures.