Fruit & Blossoms

My Fruity Page for the day.

TOMATOES are FRUIT

This one I had already done awhile back, so I thought I'd go ahead and post my fruit.  And yes!  Tomatoes are fruits NOT vegetables like everyone thinks.  Tomorrow I will post for, all of you out there that think tomatoes are vegetables, real fruit.

I had done this at a class I took at CREATE from Cloth Paper Scissors and came home and journaled.

Is anyone painting out there??

We have been quiet , haven't we!? Well I am sure most of you have been busy with Fathers Day activities, kids and grandkids out of school, classes etc. I want to encourage you to keep up with your sketching and journaling, do it for yourself. It is such good practice plus it puts you in touch with things happening in your life at this moment. You are capturing something forever! Take a minute and look back over your pages or just a page and I bet you will agree with me when I say, it takes you right back to that day or time. 

I have been so busy working in the yard, preparing for some quilt shows along with a couple of artshows that all seem to fall at the same time of year. It is a fun, busy time and I am enjoying every minute.

My pepper dish designs were not picked up, sadly. I would have loved to have dishes with my artwork on them! I hope in the future that will happen. For now its also been alot of hours in my yard, garden and picking fruit. My apricot tree ripened all at once and my peach tree is following suit. I lost two huge limbs of peaches as they could not hold the weight of the peaches although I did trim and thin, obviously not enough. After eating all we could of the apricots I decided that I would make Apricot Brandy instead of jam this year. I took the rest of my apricots and made the brandy, it is sitting in a dark, cool place for a few days or weeks until I strain and put into decorated jars as gifts at Christmas. Here is my page and recipe for my apricot jam. I may use this sketch as a gift tag for the finished gifts. There are so many wonderful ideas for your sketches!! I am posting the steps I did as a reminder for you as you paint.

I started by painting my jar and apricots loosely. Then I photographed this stage, incase I want to use as a tag or label later.

Now I taped the edge of the papter and loosely painted the background in soft greens and yellows, using the my favorite black velvet brush and did loose leaf shapes.

Next I did our leaf press trick after I blocked out a square to keep light for journaling. I also added some details to the jar and apricots. Not over working, keeping the whole page loose and fun.

The final page, well I might go around the recipe with a bit darker trim. I made it look stitched onto the background. I added some journaling around the outside edges and put the Apricot Brandy recipe in the box.

Ok let me see some fruit!!!

Your assignment until we meet again is to be recording some of the beautiful fruits you are enjoying this summer! It is such a glorious time of year with all the varieties of fruits available to us. Whether you are canning, grilling, putting them on ice cream, drinking them, lets share our love of color and fruit.

Keep trying

We took a walk yesterday (5 miles) around Mill Creek Park and Lake by our campsite in Salem Oregon.  There were lots of Canadian Geese in the lake, mostly laying on the grass, sleeping. I was able to get real close and they didn't move much. Tried to capture them with drawing and color. I found the feathers very hard to draw effectively - so much white stripes in them, I couldn't get it - but have a memory of the walk in my sketch.  Also, lots of flowers everywhere here in Oregon, I picked some California (in Oregon) Poppies to bring home and draw.  Keep trying, keep practicing.

Countryside Cottage Roof Raising

Marianne had a roof building class at her beautiful home today! Cynthia led the class as she taught us how to build our moss roofs and then plant the tiny little succulents that will be covering the roofs. Marianne also provided custom wood houses to set our newly planted roofs onto! What a great class, fun day. I also have to mention Mariannes amazing gardens and yard, a treat for any garden lover. Here is my sketchbook entry for the day. I will be moving my little house around the yard until I find it the perfect place.

Class project

I tried the class project from the video Diane made.  Picked this Lupine while on a walk yesterday morning. I am limited on my tube colors and didn't like the mixture I got with the red and blue for my purple, so used a purple, yellow and blue, not primary colors.  There is an art supply place close by and I will try to get some primary colors that are pure - this was certainly a test to find the right color mix ... but I did it with purple.  I find that I am struggling with getting too light and need to be not afraid to use more vibrant colors. I will try this project again and pick a different flower on my next walk - lots of them to choose from here in Oregon. I hope Diane will continue with the videos of the class so I can keep up

Traveling up the coast

We have started our travels up the coast in Oregon.  Driving through the Redwoods the wildflowers are profusely in bloom.  Everywhere are fields of buttercups and poppies and many clumps of purple blooming Lupine.  The Azaleas here in Oregon are very large trees with blooms bigger than I have every seen.  I tried to capture some of the color I saw yesterday.  I keep diving in with that pen and paintbrush, trying and doing my sketching.

What a wonderful June class we had!

I wanted to let everyone know that I have been working on trying to make this class available for those who can not make it, like Marilyn, for whatever reason but still would like to be involved. I have done a video, nothing too professional, but its an hour of instruction. It goes over what we did at class and then presents the lesson and I do a demo. As participating students for the month I am going to be sending you the link to view the video as part of my gift to you for attending my sketching workshop. I ask that you do not share this link or video with anyone as this is my business and I will also be offering it for sale. If you have friends that would like to purchase I will have it available for purchase on my website, www.desireesdesigns.com under workshops. The video will allow you to go in and watch me do the lesson again. I hope that it will help you feel inspired during the month.  I will be sending Junes students each a link to the video, please let me know if you can not open it etc. You will also receive a username and password you will need to open it. Let me know what you think! Keep those brushes wet!

Latest project

Hi everyone!!! I am so excited and proud of all of you, just since our class yesterday we have more of you signed up and posting!!! Congrats to you for being willing to learn and step out of your comfort zone and stretch where it may have been uncomfortable. That is why you are all doing so well, progress is sometimes uncomfortable but well worth the efforts! Applause to all of you!

I was testing sending a photo directly to the blog from my phone, the first picture was sent directly from my phone to the blog, then I added the second one and went into edit posts to add my text. I will be going over this next month at class, all of you will have an email address to send pictures from your phone. Don't worry, you will get it, you guys are awesome!

This is a project I was working on last night. My lisencing agent wants me working on some hot pepper plate designs. They will be putting them on plates of different sizes and maybe a platter and bowls. I am painting the different peppers all around then scanning them into photoshop where I will clean them up and adjust their colors, add text and put them into a round plate format. I am telling you this so you dont think my compositition stinks! LOL There is a method to my madness! I also did a little turtle for a different project. The hospital where Jenn has rehab asked me to design their t-shirts this year. I showed them the design and they asked for a turtle to be added so I painted one and will add in photoshop.

I hope you all enjoyed class yesterday, you are ALL doing great! You not only worked on blending your own colors, you did a double page spread with some new techniques! Bravo!

I am working on something that I hope to release in the next few days, check back soon.

Waterscape

One thing about this class: I'm willing to try anything. So here is my first attempt at a landscape. I drew this first in pencil while waiting endlessly in a doctor's office.

Test

I'm having Mario show me how to do this. Let's see what happens. Next time I'll send my finished sketch from yesterday's class.

Onion and Garlic

Kniphofia

Project Runway was the inspirations for the last of my petal sketching/water coloring.  If I had a yard, I would plant these in my garden.  I love the multiple colors in their blooms.  Their colors are so vibrant, which my water coloring doesn't do them justice.

Mayan Gold-Desiree

My new sketch in my garden sketchbook. Planted in the fall of 2009, the Myan Gold -Tacoma is blooming like crazy. I love the funnel shaped flowers and I hope it continues to do well there. Sitting next to the smoke tree it is a eye catcher. I ended up journaling in the window, do you see it?