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.