Art Sunday: First steps

I've never had a big talent or desire to become a real artist. Nevertheless, I was always mesmerized by the fragile tenderness of the watercolor paintings. Lately I've been thinking of taking a few drawing lessons to create illustrations for my stories. On hearing that, a friend of mine recommended a book by Betty Edwards "Drawing on the artist within". This book changed my approach towards painting and opened so many new interesting things for me. Even in the ordinary everyday life I see thousands of new things that were slipping away from my attention previously. Here are a few results after exercises I've taken from this book:

This is how I started. An absolutely ugly and childish self-portrait :)

This is where I moved after a few tasks. Drawing a hand is always a big problem for a beginner :)

This is my recent work. Still studying and trying to find a little time for more practice.

I am so grateful to my friend who told me about this book. This is a real treasure that brings confidence in your talents and shows that impossible is nothing :)