West Leyden Photography Club fun with light.!

Leyden Art T-shirts   One of a kind works of art.

West Leyden Photography Club experiments with Long exposures and fire!!!

Painting I recently completed of Monroe street bridge in Chicago.  The painting is 48"x 48" in oil.  I used a plein air study and some photographs.

http://sbpra.com/smlappe/

If you are interested in learning more about large scale sidewalk drawings check out this book on the subject.  Street Painting covers the process from start to finish and the tools needed to create your own sidewalk drawing.  

More great works by West Leyden Art students.  The art students work on Large scale images.  They used grid on the image and enlarged it.  they did a great job color matching. 

Here are two of the finish sidewalk drawings at West Leyden HS Center Courtyard on May 8. The students did an awesome job and overcame some minor issues.  Lite rain.  They toughed it out and completed the work.  

MAKING YOUR OWN PASTELS! 

http://studioproducts.com/demo/pastetxt.html
This is where the info comes from.  Thanks

I have use this method to create my own pastels.  I can make one of a kind colors and manage the quality control better.  The size and shape of the pastels are completely up to me.  
   "Snarky art teacher"

Pastels are very easy to make and the savings over store bought pastels is enormous. Pastels are made by mixing a gum solution with pigment, shaping into sticks and allowing it to dry. That’s all there is to it. Of all the gums and binders, Gum Tragacanth is best suited for pastel making. It has a very high pigment binding strength, but it won't stick to your fingers as you manufacture your pastels.


Full strength Gum Tragacanth
solution is prepared as follows:

1 tbsp.	gum tragacanth
15 oz.	distilled water

1. Mix the gum and water, allowing the mixture to sit for 2 days (it cannot be rushed). It will become a soft gel.
2. Store the mixture in the refrigerator to avoid having it spoil.

Different pigments hold varying amounts of water, when water and binder is added to them some must be blended with different dilutions of the gum solution in order to create a uniform softness (the stronger the gum solution, the harder the pastel). In order to adjust for the different needs of pigments, the Gum Tragacanth should be thinned as follows:

A) Full Strength Tragacanth

B) 1 Part Solution A to 2 Parts Water

C) 1 Part Solution B to 2 Parts Water

D) 1 Part Solution C to 2 Parts Water

E) 1 Part Solution D to 2 Parts Water

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The pastels made in the following manner:
As you can see, we’re not too concerned with making perfectly round pastels — but you might be.

1. Place a small mound of Pigment onto a clean non-porous surface.
2. Add a small amount of the Gum Tragacanth Solution.
3. Work the Gum Tragacanth into the pigment with a palette knife.
4. Continue mixing until it forms a dough of a rubbery consistency.
5. Cut the pigment in half.
6. Roll one half into sticks and put aside for drying (we cover our pastels with waxed paper to slow down the drying and insure consistent quality).
7. Mix the other half with an equal part of Zinc White (which you have made into a paste - make a lot of this).
8. Cut that mixture in half, make sticks and put aside for drying.
9. Continue cutting the remaining color with an equal amount of white until it reaches its limit of paleness. Now you have a complete range of one color.
10. If the dough is too wet, it sticks to paper and if its too dry the pastels will fall apart before they dry.
11. Roll the dough on newspaper, until a pastel stick shape is formed.
12. Allow Pastel Sticks to dry for a day or two, before use. The slower they dry, the less chance they will break.

Here is a partial list of binder solutions and pigments that work well together:


Solution B

Titanium White
Unbleached Titanium
Iron Oxide Black
Ultramarine Blue
Ultramarine Violet

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Solution C

Zinc Oxide
Slate Grey
Permanent Yellow HKA
Raw Sienna
French Ochres
Mars Red

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Solution D

Champagne Chalk
Bologna Chalk
Kaolin
Blanc Fixe
Ivory Black
Yellow Iron Oxide
English Red

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Solution E

Burnt Umber
Yellow Ochre
Green Earth
Pompeiian Red

If you are looking for the supplies for making your own pastels... Blick Art supplies is a great source and so is Kramer Pigment.  Gum Tragacanth is not easy to fine.  I have only been able to locate it a Kramer Pigments.  

Hot Press, and Cold Press papers...  Whats the diff?

In watercolor world, what’s the difference between cold press and hot press watercolor paper? Why, let me show you…

Do you remember the red maple leaf we painted the other day? Well, I painted two of them at the same time using the same steps and the same paints. Here is what they look like:

Cold press watercolor paper (left) has texture. Little bumps and groves holds in the water and pigment. It really sucks up the water pretty quickly. Cold press is a good choice when you want to convey texture in your subject.

Hot press (right) is super smooth. No texture with this paper. This paper doesn’t suck up the water as fast as the cold press, allowing you to play around more, like re-wetting edges of pigment.

Notice the colors of the two leaves! This is what I discovered when painting them side-by-side, the hot press is more vivid and bright. The cold press is a little more dull…but I used the same paints! Does it have to do with the absorbance of the paper? Maybe? Maybe the pigment gets imbedded in the cold press paper and soaks thoroughly and perhaps the pigment on the hot press dries closer to the surface. Or maybe the tiny groves in the cold press creates an overall shadow to the eye? Hmmm…interesting.

Here is a close up of the upper right section:

Cold Press. Can you see the texture in the paper?

Hot Press. Really smooth.

Buy both papers, don’t limit yourself to just one type…play…have fun! I hope this helps clear up the confusion about cold and hot press watercolor paper.

This information is from Let's Paint Nature!

Hiking & Painting in Nature – Chicago

This is a Jeep Oil painting I recently completed.  It is on a 16X20 inch black canvas.  Hope you enjoy the painting.

Pencils Pencils Pencils

Ever wonder what the letter designation and number mean on a pencil?

NUMERICAL GRAPHITE SCALE

The first graphite grading scale is a numeric scale. Using this scale, the hardness of the core is often marked on the pencil — look for a number (such as “2″ “2-1/2″ or “3″). The higher the number the harder the writing core and the lighter the mark left on the paper. As the pencil core becomes softer (through the use of lower proportions of clay) it leaves a darker mark as it deposits more graphite material on the paper. Softer pencils will dull faster than harder leads and require more frequent sharpening.

HB GRAPHITE SCALE

The second graphite grading scale is known as the HB scale. Most pencil manufacturers outside of the U.S. use this scale, using the letter “H” to indicate a hard pencil. Likewise, a pencil maker might use the letter “B” to designate the blackness of the pencil’s mark, indicating a softer lead. The letter “F” is also used to indicate that the pencil sharpens to a fine point.

Historically, pencil makers also use combinations of letters — a pencil marked “HB” is hard and black; a pencil marked “HH” is very hard, and a pencil marked “HHBBB” is very hard and really, really black! Although today most pencils using the HB system are designated by a number such as 2B, 4B or 2H to indicate the degree of hardness. For example, a 4B would be softer than a 2B and a 3H harder than an H.

GRAPHITE SCALE COMPARISONS

Generally, an HB grade about the middle of the scale is considered to be equivalent to a #2 pencil using the U.S. numbering system.

In reality however, there is no specific industry standard for the darkness of the mark to be left within the HB or any other hardness grade scale. Thus, a #2 or HB pencil from one brand will not necessarily leave the same mark as a #2 or HB pencil from another brand. Most pencil manufacturers set their own internal standards for graphite hardness grades and overall quality of the core, some differences are regional. In Japan, consumers tend to prefer softer darker leads; so an HB lead produced in Japan is generally softer and darker than an HB from European producers.

Finding what works best for your own artistic and writing needs is generally a matter of personal preference and experimentation with different brands of pencils.

This information is brought to you by    http://pencils.com/

Artist opening for Artist Sergio Farfan at the Ian Sherwin Gallery in Chicago IL.  Awesome talented artist.  Has a lot of tshirts for sale and other great images.

8X10 Oil This is a painting of Salt Creek in Oak Brook Illinois.

Oil 11X14 Downtown Chicago Sunday morning.  The streets are rearly this empty. 

These two paintings are painted in Door County Wis. both are 8x10 canvas board.  The top was painted at my grandparents summer home in Sisterbay and the other is Highway 42 on the way to North Port.

This is an 11X14 oil on canvas painted on location in a Chicago park.  My plein air students and I spent a day last fall out here.

Brody Roybal is the 15-year-old forward of the U.S. men’s sled hockey team. Brody talks about the sport of sled hockey, his team’s chances and the upcoming PBS special, “Ice Warriors.”



Watch PBS on Sled Hockey.  Brody is one of my students in the Introduction to Digital Photography.  We are proud of him and his commitment to excellence. Brody is hard working and will do great in the Olympic.  We send him off today to train and head to Russia. GOOD LUCK!

The Monuments Men

We saw "The Monuments Men"  last night and loved it.  Great movie staring George Clooney, Matt Damon, bla bla bla and Bill Murray.  Great cast that gave a nice believeable performanc.  The movie showed just how important art and our culture turly is, and to what ends we are willing to go to save it. 

This is a good choice to show in the classroom because the movie has historical referances, exaples of great art and some vintage photographs of the real people involved.  

Worth the time to go see the movie.  However too many previews of other movies.  

Visual sparring

This landscape painting was produced in the forest preserve near my home.  The painting is an exersize in visual sparring between an abstrate oil wash and a representational landscape. 

HOW TO stretch water colorpaper

HOW TO: Stretch Water color paper

If you have ever painted a watercolor painting on watercolor paper and found the paper puckering, warping and buckling you might not know how to fix or avoid it from happening in the first place.

Stretching watercolor paper is a time tested method used by watercolor artist for a long time.  The process is simple.  You will need a tray or tub large enough to fit your watercolor paper.  Fill the tub with fresh water about an inch in depth.  Place the paper in the tub and submerge it completely.  The paper must soak for at least twenty minutes. The paper will absorb the water and expand.  After twenty minutes remove the paper from the tub and let it drip so that the excess water runs off.  Place the paper on a large wooden board of a soft wood.  You will be stapling the paper down to the board.  Masonite does not work well.  It is too hard and the staples will not penetrate.  

To staple: you will be working the edge of the paper about a half inch to three quarters of an inch inside the exterior of the watercolor paper.  Start at the mid-point of the top edge with one staple and go across to the bottom edge and place a second staple, Next place a staple on the right edge in the middle and then another staple across for that on the left edge.  From there work your way out to the corners of the the water color paper.  On a piece of watercolor paper that is 24 inches wide you can expect to have five staples across the top and another five across the bottom edge.  The same is true of the left and right side edges.

Let the paper dry over night and it will be taught and ready to paint on.  Stretching works best with high quality papers, 140 lb or better.  Cheaper weights of paper will pull from the staples and tear.

Any questions please send me a message in the comment section

Elmhurst Art Museum students worked on create an underwater scene of fish and other underwater life.  The paper was cut round like a fish bowl.

A recent portrait of Regan complete in oil 8X10.  She still loves her passy.

The students are working on a recent color wheel project.  Using cookies as a pallet the colored the frosting with food color to create the primary colors and secondary colors.  Then ate them.  Edible art what a great idea.

This is a student work using post-it notes with drawings on them.  Each note depicts a students personal enjoyments. The work remained "Post-it" on the window for a week and was removed.  The work enjoyed a lot of foot traffic and close inspection.