Paint Party Friday: Colorful Characters

Thanks to everyone who visited last week as part of Paint Party Friday!  I tried to visit as many of the participants as possible, although blogger seemed to be eating many of my comments.  I really enjoyed the link-up, and I'm back again this week with two more characters.  For these, I wanted to make the faces more colorful (last week's all had fairly true flesh tones), and I really liked the results. In comparing with last week's faces (here and here), these seem to have more character and depth. I think it's a result of my growing confidence.  I want to try something similar using acrylic paints, instead of watercolors.
It's funny, I've always said that I don't like working with watercolors. But what I should really say is that I don't like working with traditional watercolors.  These paintings were done with twinkling H2O's and a water brush.  I'm curious about what other water color and brush combinations people use and like - please share your recommendations in the comments.
And thanks for stopping by!