Professional Painters in Chicago

Painting Pride on Chicago’s South Side

Professional Painters in Chicago

Looking for Professional Painters in Chicago? Particularly on the South Side? Look no further.

Many of Chicago’s neighborhood’s consist of a healthy mix of various working class residents. Amongst those residents, a good percentage of them are proud owners of their own business. Driven by labor, Chicago business owners offer a plethora of services from craftsmen of every stripe. Skills have been passed down throughout generations from father to son and many businesses extend those generations. One of the more prominent labor services available would be local, professional painters in Chicago.

Located on Chicago’s far south side, Mt. Greenwood and Beverly are home to many of these small business painting professionals. Mt. Greenwood is well known for it’s strong Irish Catholic roots. By extension, Mt. Greenwood is a neighbourhood known for working class people with a penchant for craftsmanship and quality.

Just to the east of Mt. Greenwood lies the historic Beverly neighborhood. Beverly features a variety of very prominent older homes, specifically on Longwood Drive. A staple of the neighborhood is the Beverly Arts Center, but what Beverly is most famous for is the former South Side Irish Parade on Western Avenue.

In order to keep the Beverly and Mt. Greenwood neighborhoods thriving, a tight knit bond between the residents is of the utmost importance. Many of the residents of these communities understand this concept and believe in employing local labor for their home improvement needs.

Design Concepts Customer Interiors has been prominent in the Beverly area for many years. Aside from the normal painting services that they offer, Design Concepts includes other featured tasks. They offer kitchen and bath design, woodworking, faux finishes, renovation projects, custom blinds, tile, carpeting and stone/brick pavers & patios.

In the Beverly area, a classic home design known as the “Painted Lady” describes many of the homes. Kelso Painting is an award winning service that has experience with the Painted Lady homes. Described as Interior/Exterior specialists, Kelso Painting prides themselves on their many referrals. They offer staining/varnishing, power washing, plaster/drywall repair and small construction projects.

Like many small businesses, Peterson Painting is a family-owned business. Peterson offers many of the services that other painting businesses can, only with their proclaimed father-to-son skilled craftsmanship. They are residents of the Beverly neighborhood and are referred by the Beverly Area Planning Association for more than 17 years.

Lastly, Kelley Painting provides the Beverly area with a local touch. They have more than 15 years experience and offer references if requested. Kelley offers service for interior/exterior, staining, sealing, drywall repair, decks/fences, wrought iron and pressure washing. Like many painters, they offer clients free estimates.

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Famous Paintings

famous paintings

Well-Known Paintings

A certain number of famous paintings are recognized by almost everyone, even people who have had no formal exposure to art. Think of the Mona Lisa, for example. That face with the mysterious smile appears on coffee mugs, t-shirts and cocktail napkins. Nat King Cole sang of her, and New Yorker cartoonists riff on her. This portrait, and other famous paintings such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night or Monet’s Waterlilies, are universally known and loved.

That may not make them the best choice when you’re purchasing artwork for yourself. Before you decide on a piece of art that you’ve seen enough to feel familiar and comfortable with, browse through the online galleries to look at less well known works. You might even find an original painting that speaks to you, and which you won’t see everywhere you go.

Look Beyond Famous Paintings

When people buy artwork for their homes and offices, they tend to choose from the same handful of paintings all the time. One reason for this is that these famous paintings are always available, and it takes little effort to find them. Another may be that the buyer is insecure about his or her taste. Everyone knows that Waterlilies is a great painting, so it’s a safer choice than the one you may like better but which is unknown.

Buy What You Love

It’s my belief that you should buy what you love. You live with it, you look at it every day, and it should please you every time you see it. The problem, of course, is that when you fall in love with an obscure painting, it may be hard to find a reproduction. Fortunately, internet shopping makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to find exactly what you want.

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SketchUp Makes 3D Drawing and Modelling Easy For Beginners

SketchUp

Google Sketch-Up is a free 3D drawing program for creating polygon models quickly and easily. While lacking the sophisticated toolset and advanced features of the 3D software used by professional modelers and animators in both the gaming and film industries, such as those found in Autodesk Maya or Cinema 4D, SketchUp has a comparatively simple learning curve.

Google are masters of interface design, and Sketchup benefits from its uncluttered, easy to navigate layout. Unlike more complex 3D software, the Sketchup interface makes all of the programs intuitive modeling tools instantly accessible. Sketchup is comprehensively documented, and is further supported by an active and enthusiastic community and a variety of Google Sketch-Up tutorial videos.

Download Google Sketchup Free or Buy Sketchup Pro

Available for both the Mac and Windows, Google Sketch-Up comes in 2 editions. Sketchup itself is free, and can be downloaded from the Google Sketch-Up website. The free version of the software has certain limitations that are unlocked in the professional version of the program, Sketchup Pro, which retails for $495. The Pro version includes the following features not available in the free version of Google Sketch-Up:

  • Extended export capabilities, including saving out to the OBJ, FBX, 3DS and XSI formats.
  • Inclusion of LayOut, the 2D documentation design tool.
  • The ability to add attribute data to 3D models using Dynamic Components.
  • Use Solid Tools for additive and subtractive modeling.
  • Create 2D drawings and sketches from 3D geometry using Style Builder.

However, the 3D modeler using the personal edition of Sketchup for free can still make 3D models, export them to 3D formats such as KMZ and DAE and create limited scene-based animations. Free users can also upload their creations to the Google 3D warehouse to share with other Sketchup users, and make 3D buildings to upload to Google Earth.

Easy 3D Modeling in Free Sketchup Software

Making 3D models in Sketchup is a quick, intuitive process, that can be thought of as 3D drawing. Geometry in Sketchup is sketched out in 2D by drawing straight lines that, when linked together, form flat planes, such as triangles, squares and rectangles.

These 2D planes are then extruded into 3D using the Sketchup Push/Pull tool. This tool adds the third dimension to the sketch, creating 3D depth. This tool can also be used to cut holes through existing geometry. More complex extrusions can be achieved using the Follow-Me tool, which creates sweeps and lathes from 2D faces along a predetermined path sketched out by the 3D modeler.

The Paint Bucket tool, common to most 2D drawing applications, is used in Sketchup to add color to the flat faces of 3D models, or to add imported materials and textures to geometry. Textured 3D models can also benefit from the extra realism provided by the softwares Shadows Engine, which provides realistic real-time shadow effects to objects created in Sketchup.

Google Sketch-Up is Superior 3D Drawing Software

While the free version of Google Sketch-Up would be considered feature-light by most professional 3D digital artists, its simplicity is its strength. Learning all of the capabilities of market-leading 3D software creation tools such as Autodesk Maya, or the more advanced free 3D programs such as Blender or 3D DAZ Studio, can take weeks, months, or even years. In contrast, Sketchup enables a newcomer to 3D to be modeling effectively within minutes of downloading and installing the program.

The ease of use of the Sketchup modeling toolset can even be useful to the more experienced 3D artist, as rapid prototyping in this program is remarkably quick, with 3D geometry extruded from 2D sketches all but jumping off the screen. With the additional functionality offered by Google Sketch-Up Pro, it is little wonder that both the free and commercial versions of this superior 3D drawing software are so vastly popular, with millions of users worldwide.

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Religious Oil paintings

religious oil paintings

Religious oil paintings bring your home to life! If you have lived in your home for many years, chances are you might be a little bored with your surroundings. Before repainting or recarpeting, consider purchasing new religious oil paintings. Christian paintings can dramatically change the look and feel of any room.

For instance, you might want to hang a large, historical piece by Arnold Friberg in a formal dining room. This will lend an air of dignity and grace to the room. Works by Larry Dyke can quickly become the centerpiece of any office. Your children’s bedrooms will benefit from the cheerful, touching beauty of religious oil paintings of angels and cherubs.

Religious Oil Paintings Online

The best place to find religious oil paintings and other Christian artworks is online. The Internet is a great source of religious art, with amazing variety. You can easily find signed and numbered prints by all of today’s top artists. You can even commission an artist to make a portrait of your family!

Signed and numbered prints are excellent investments. The more famous the artist, and the smaller the printing, the better your odds of having the painting appreciate in value. This is why signed and numbered prints are ideal baptism gifts. Their value increases over time.

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Still Life: The Basics of Drawing a Pencil Still Life for beginners

still life

Drawing is an artistic skill that can be improved by combining natural talent with diligent practice. A simple still life is a good place to start in learning to create attractive pencil drawings. Beginner artists may consider these tips for drawing a still life.

Still Life Drawing Supplies

Begin with the necessities for drawing. You will need a sketching paper or a sketchpad, pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener and perhaps a blending tool. A blending tool is a pencil-shaped device made of paper, either end of which can be used to blend pencil or pencil crayons. Once used, the ends can be sanded to remove excess pencil lead. You may appreciate the look of charcoal or conté, but it is often easier to learn with a pencil.

Consider sketching pencils. An “HB” pencil is a regular pencil – students will use in it school for math class. A number alongside “H” on a pencil indicates the hardness of the lead. The higher the number, the lighter the pencil marks will be. A number alongside “B” on a pencil indicates the softness of the lead, and how dark the pencil marks would be. The higher the number, the darker the pencil marks. Therefore “HB” is in the middle of the spectrum. These different pencils help with shading in sophisticated pencil drawings.

A beginner artist can learn well with a simple HB pencil. However, while practising, you may wish to experiment with different sketching pencils as well.

Drawings Shapes and Shading in Pencil Sketches

Drawing is a skill that takes some practice to do well. For learning, begin with something simple, like an apple. Look at the apple before you; noticed its curves. Apples are not perfectly round, as much as some look like they are. The apple may have a round middle, but inevitably dips in on the top, where the stem is. Taking note of this shape, begin drawing with the outline. Drawing a still life is translating to the page what you see. To best form the outline, be sure to observe the apple often, comparing it to the drawing. Draw the outline with a light hand, as it will be easier to erase mistakes.

Pencil sketching looks at shapes, shadows and colour contrasts rather than colours and shades. Consider the shadows as well as differences in shades of colour on the apple. For example, a mostly red apple may have a spot of yellow on it as well. As a lighter colour, it requires lighter shading.

When shading, start with the outline and work your way inward. When using a simple HB pencil, shade lightly and go over the same area until the shadows are as dark as desired. This keeps mistakes easy to erase if need be. If you do not have a blending tool, shading can be smoothed lightly with a fingertip. As with the outline, compare the drawing to the apple. Does the shading gradually become lighter or darker, as it does on the apple? Have you left a spot of white where a light may be reflecting off the apple?

A good trick for creating such a spot of light is to shade the area lightly and erase it in whatever shape the light is in. In the case of the apple, it would likely be an upside-down tear drop shape that curves slightly. Moreover, rubbing the shading lightly with a blending tool helps to better even out the pencil lines and keeps fingers clean.

Beginner artists may try these tips for pencil sketching a still life. Remember that drawing is a skill that can be learned with an artistic eye and plenty of practice. If the first still life drawing is unsatisfactory, simply try again.

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A Guide to Acrylic Paint Brushes

paint brush

A Guide to the Acrylic Paint Brush

While painting with acrylic, there are many different brushes that can give you your desired effect. Many beginner artists wonder what each paint brush does and what they are used for. This article will explain some of the key brushes when painting with acrylic.

Filbert – This paint brush has a flat profile with a point that is slightly rounded. When using it on its side, it will give a thin line. When used flat, the filbert gives a broad brush stroke. It is used for softening edges and giving a variety of strokes.

Fan Brush – The fan brush has a flat profile and spreads out like a fan. It is used for blending from color to color. Also, I like to use it for creating fur on animals. I dip the tip of my brush into my paint and very lightly and smoothly make a stroke. There are different sizes depending on what you are trying to create.

Round – The more you press down the wider this brush becomes. It is thin at the top coming to a point. It can create a variety of thin and thick lines depending on the pressure applied to the brush. It is easier to use with thinned paint.

Pointed Round – This brush is thinner than the round paint brush. It too has a pointed tip. It is best used for small detailed areas.

Detail Round – The detail round has shorter hairs than the round and pointed round. It is very small and is best used for areas that have a lot of detail. I use this brush a lot if I am painting words, eyelashes, cracks, and a lot of other objects.

Bright – The bright paint brush has a flat profile with short hairs. The hairs curve inwards as you get closer to the tip of the brush. It is good when painting with thick, heavy paint.

Flat – Of course, this brush has a flat profile. The tip is very squarish and has medium sized hairs. I use this brush a lot for fine lines, and edges. The square tip makes it easy to use when trying to get straight lines.

Angular – The angular paint brush also has a flat profile with long hairs starting at one side and getting shorter at the other side. The hairs end at an angle. This brush is great when try to fill in corners because of its angle. It can be used when trying to get into small areas.

The more you experiment with these brushes, the better you will become at using them. My advice is to get a piece of paper and try all the different techniques with each brush. Learning the techniques will help you in painting a finished piece.


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Chinese Antique Paintings

Chinese Antique Paintings

Decorating for your home. The images in Chinese antique paintings are traditionally both delicate, and bold. The landscapes are often quite hypnotic. These pieces can be a wonderful addition to a home, or a room in a home, that needs a harmonizing, peaceful element to bring it into balance.

Harmonizing with Chinese Antique Paintings

For instance, if your dining room is fairly formal, with heavy wooden furniture and heavy drapery, the lightness and delicacy of Chinese antique paintings can breathe new life into an otherwise stuffy environment. In contrast, if your daughter’s room is a modern mess, with laundry on the floor and celebrity posters covering the walls, something like a Chinese nature painting can add a touch of much-needed elegance. Your daughter will love it for its beauty and “grown up” appeal.

Chinese paintings also make wonderful gifts, because they appeal to most people, yet are totally unexpected. Most people really like Chinese paintings, but few people have them. A painting of lotus flowers on silk would be a splendid gift for your mother or grandmother. A painting of a prowling tiger on rice paper makes a fantastic gift for a boy’s birthday.

The best place to get these paintings, as well as angel art and golf art, is online. When you search for pictures online, you literally have thousands upon thousands of paintings at your disposal. When you shop in a traditional store, you’re lucky to find even 100 prints.

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Interior Painter: Finding the Right One For Your House

interior painter

The land of do-it-yourself can be a dangerous one, but even more dangerous is the prospect of hiring a professional, affordable interior painter! It’s important to consider a few simple principles when deciding how to hire an interior painter. Remember that it’s all about what you want, and then choose the painter that fits your budget.

The Budget Painter

If cheap is your goal, rest assured there are plenty of options. Prices vary drastically. If you care more about getting the cheapest than the best, then a quick visit to Craigslist.org will give you oodles of options. Sometimes this is the only option, and when it is, doing a little research can yield fantastic results without breaking the bank.

All that said, even worse than underpaying for shoddy work is overpaying for shoddy work. There are numerous painting companies out there who will provide you fancy, detailed estimates that are way out of your price range. When considering the cost of a project, use common sense. Consider the square footage, and then estimate a price that would seem reasonable if you were the one doing the job. Oftentimes, painting companies will take advantage of home-owners lack of do-it-yourself knowledge and exploit it for their own benefit. If someone is too expensive for you, then simply don’t hire them. Many painting companies will say that the work they do is worth the extra money, but keep in mind that this is painting we’re talking about. You’re not asking for the Sistine Chapel to be recreated over your dining table, and you shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Primer, Paints, And Brushes, Oh My!

There are other factors to consider when choosing a painter. For example, does the painter you’re considering provide the primer? If so, is it dark or light to suit your desired color? Does the painter provide their own equipment, including ladders for those high ceilings? Make sure the estimate includes the cost of at least two coats of primer, just to be on the safe side. You don’t want to be stuck between a rock and a hard place if their light-colored primer isn’t dark enough to get by with one coat of actual paint.

Google, Yelp, and Twitter

The Internet has provided a lot of transparency with regards to companies and their reputations. In the old days, an unhappy customer could only issue sometimes empty threats about filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Nowadays, a simple Tweet or a review on Yelp.com will provide you with all the firing power necessary. Companies know this, and it’s therefore always a good idea to simply Google, Yelp, or Twitter search their company. You might find nothing at all, be pleasantly surprised, or stumble upon a red flag that could potentially save you hundreds of dollars.

When it’s all said and done, you’ll be happy you took the time to find the interior painter that was right for you.

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Personalized Art

personalised art

When decorating a home, office, or any architectural space, using personalized art may offer more individual and special meaning than other forms of decorative art. Many artists enjoy working with people, sharing ideas, interests, and tastes to create a unique piece of personalized art specifically for you. These could be a custom tapestry, decorative wall murals, or some other designer wall covering.

Personalized Art Murals

Mural painting is usually conceptualized in relation to the original site, which makes it an environmental artifact of that space. For many, murals express ideas and statements that can be religious, political, social, cultural, or historical. Throughout history, murals have appeared in churches, tombs, temples, libraries, museums, public buildings, and some consider cave paintings the first murals.

For decorative purposes, art murals can establish a mood or setting with a three-dimensional illusion painted on each wall. Commercial space often uses personalized art mural paintings to set a distinct theme in a store or restaurant. With the help of a talented mural artist, a business can greatly enhance the visual appeal in that space and become more memorable for customers.

In homes, hand painted murals can create a dramatic foyer entrance by painting an opening to the sky on the ceiling! Kid’s rooms are ideal for a fun, creative mural that depicts a nature scene, zoo, circus, or underwater sea creatures. These bright, colorful images create are a great teaching tool, and provide a stimulating environment for growing children that encourages a vivid imagination.

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About us:
 Our company formed in 2015 to make your dream masterpieces come to life. At Paintings Studio, you can create and order custom paintings to complete your home, office, or any wall of your choice! A precious pet painting, the perfect gift for your mother, or a special present for yourself – the options are endless!

Michelangelo Drawings in Question: Three German Scholars Say Many Museums’ Holdings Are Copies

drawings

As reported by Times Online, a trio of German professors has concluded that numerous drawings firmly attributed to Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) in London’s Royal Collection, the British Museum and Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology are not by the master’s hand. They estimate that approximately 40% of those owned by museums worldwide are not authentic.

The Controversy

Leading the charge against the drawings’ authenticity is Frank Zöllner, a professor of Renaissance and Modern art at the University of Leipzig. He’s supported by Thomas Pöpper, a lecturer at the same institution, and Christof Thoenes, an honorary professor at the University of Hamburg. Their contentions appear in Michelangelo: Complete Works, a 768-page text, thoroughly color-illustrated with enlarged detail prints and released by Taschen Books on November 19, 2007. The authors insist that the number of drawings ascribed to Michelangelo has been artificially inflated due to the interests of museum curators, collectors and the art market.

Some of the Artist’s Drawings in Question

Among the sheets whose authorship the three scholars find dubious are The Brazen Serpent (ca. 1511) in the Ashmolean Museum and The Three Labours of Hercules (ca. 1530) and The Risen Christ (ca. 1532) in the Royal Collection. Also excluded from the authors’ revised corpus of drawings by Michelangelo is the British Museum’s Crucifixion (ca. 1538-1541), most recently featured in Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master, a European exhibition of 90 works on paper by the solitary and miserly painter, sculptor, draftsman and architect. On view at the Teyler Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands (October 6, 2005-January 8, 2006) and the British Museum in London, England (March 23-June 25, 2006), the popular exposition’s contents were drawn from both establishments’ renowned collections and that of the Ashmolean Museum.

The Risen Christ

Michelangelo’s The Risen Christ in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle is a work on paper drawn in black chalk. Exhibited often and researched extensively in the 20th Century, the single-figure sheet depicts Christ emerging from His tomb. It bears a striking similarity to two of the artist’s graphic works in the British Museum and Florence’s Casa Buonarroti as well as copies of a lost work in Rotterdam’s Museum Boysman-van Beuningen.

The resurrected Christ alights upward from his open stone sarcophagus, His burial shroud floating behind Him. Michelangelo rendered the divine Savior’s powerful body, triumphant over death, with a joyous sense of movement. Christ’s pose strongly resembles that of the Creator in the artist’s God the Father Separating Light from Darkness (1508-1512) on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Invitation for Scholarly Debate

A spokeswoman for the Royal Collection has publicly dismissed Zöllner’s charges as baseless. Hugo Chapman, the British Museum’s Curator of Italian Drawings, and the Ashmolean Museum’s Timothy Wilson gladly invite the opportunity for scholarly and informed debate.

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