Strawberry shortcake
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 7:00AM 
I needed something to distract me from Ezra's bedtime cries last night. Michael has taken it upon himself to help Ezra cry it out. We need some sleep in the middle of the night. If he can learn to put himself to sleep, we will all be happier!
Everything for the strawberry shortcake was ready (which I kept statusing about on Facebook, hoping to get a spontaneous dessert guest...turns out it was just us). Waiting for Michael. I took Hannah Mae out to the studio to get my paints. She loves painting with me, especially before bed since I put off putting her to bed as I get too into painting. The longer it takes me, the later she gets to stay up.
I got out my usual black pen and started to sketch the bowl containing the strawberries. Not into it. I didn't want to use black. I really wanted to get that feel of everything toppling over onto the plate. The melding of everything together. The seeping of the strawberry juice into the biscuit. Soft edges, not hard. Lots of bright red splashes, not thin black lines.
I painted the first layer with watercolors, thinking simple splotches of red would do the trick. I asked Hannah Mae if they looked like strawberries and she said no. It wasn't quite right. Neither were the biscuits. I was going to draw strawberry slices on top of the watercolor with black pen. Instead, I made myself ditch the pen for this one. Colored pencil added the right touch. I could get some detail and blending (love blending with white colored pencil) without getting too fussy with it. Hannah Mae had said that I didn't need to paint the whipped cream (or "whooped cream" as she says) since the paper was white. I had to do something though. After we finished eating and Hannah Mae was in bed, I completed the painting with thick splats of white gouache. Looks good enough to eat!
food
Reader Comments (9)
My favorite part of this is the biscuits. How do you do it? I love that--"whooped" cream. I think we should get serious about the cookbook thing.
The biscuits?! Those were the trickiest. I wasn't sure how they turned out. Thanks! Yes, let's make cookbook plans...after I get some of my quilting patterns done with Patricia.
forget how you painted it, lets just eat it!
Wish you could have joined us, Mama! I will give you some cards of this one. I just made a birthday card out of it.
xoxo.
I love the free feel of this! Looks delicious too! Well...how was it? ;)
It was delicious, Midori! Thanks for visiting! A comment from someone besides my mom & sister! Yay!
Very nice Naomi! It’s like the essence of strawberry shortcake! I also like that you restrained yourself from using the black pen . . . I fall into that trap a lot myself (not that there's anything wrong with your black pen based pieces) .
Sweet! (Pun intended.)
I want this in my kitchen!
Then again, it may deter me from eating my veggies. :)
I LOVE this. Yes, please put this in a cookbook!